Whatever it Takes
by coffeemuggle
Summary: LOST OC CHARACTER STORY! See inside for more details! SUBMISSIONS FOR OTHERS ARE OPEN!
1. Chapter 1

Hello all! The name's Derek and I'm going to be writing a Lost OC character story! I got my inspiration from the story "Do You Believe in Destiny?", and I've been looking forward to writing a story like that for awhile, but I'm awful at coming up with my own characters so…this is where you come in! Make sure to make them as interesting as possible, and fill out the following form - PM it to me, and I'll start up the story as soon as I get enough characters!

Name:

Nicknames:

Age:

Where from?:

Connections (to other characters):

Appearance:

Personality (include good and bad sides):

Describe your character in three words:

Friends:

Enemies:

Love interest and belief in love:

Family:

Past (include why was in Sydney and why was going back to LA):

If your character was faced with the monster, what would they do?:

Occupation:

Anything else?:


	2. Chapter 2

Wow, guys, thank you so much for your submissions! I'm really looking forward to starting the story, but I can't until I get more male OC's. Seriously, I don't care if you've submitted a character once already, please submit another! I can't start the story without more male characters! Here are the characters that have been accepted so far:

**- Adele Slizewski,** submitted by _Jac Danvers _

Wow, I'm in love with your character! Thank you so much for the detailed back-story; I'm really looking forward to writing her out, it's going to be a challenge!

**- Hannah Pace, **submitted by _AmyLNelson_

Thank you so much for your character! She seems like a very good challenge to write out, and I can't wait to get started planning her! I'll keep in touch with you on flash-backs.

**- Phillip Clarke, **submitted by _Golden-Black Dragon_

Thank you for being the only male OC submitted! He seems very quirky and fun, and I really can't wait to start planning out his story arc!

**- Dr. Arianna Taylor, **submitted by _Behind Sapphire Eyes_

I'm very excited to start writing Dr. Taylor! I think her back-story is enamoring and I'm going to have a ball; thank you for submitting her character!

**- Amelia Cooper, **submitted by _GwenCooper92_

Thank you for submitting your character! I loved reading Amelia's back-story, and already I have plenty of good ideas for her - thanks again!

**- Cathy Harris, **submitted by _Musicunderground _

Cathy's fascinating! I love her back-story, and I'm really excited to start writing out her tough character - thank you very much for submitting her!

**- Scarlett Lexington, **submitted by _everysonghasanending_

Thank you for submitting your character! Scarlett seems like a very interesting, challenging character to write, and I'm very much looking forward to starting!

**- Kiara Greenly, **submitted by __

Ah, I love Kiara! Thank you for writing out her character - I feel like it'll be great to have a younger character on the Island, and I'm already planning out her fate!

**- Bethany Collins, **submitted by _charmed4eva112_

Thank you for submitting your character! I love the reason why Beth was on Flight 815, and I'm dying to get started writing up her arc and flash-backs!

**- Lucinda Hampton, **submitted by _NotPennysBoat815_

Thank you for submitting Lucie! She was the very first character I received, and I've already fallen in love with her - I can't wait to start!

Well, those are the only applications I've received this far, so PLEASE send in more if you can, especially male characters! Further in to the story, I'll be accepting Others and then freighter folk, but only when the time comes.


	3. Chapter 3

Wow, guys! I'm really shocked by the number of you who stepped up when I asked for male characters. Thank you so much! Here's the final list of accepted middlesection OCs:

**Scarlett Lexington**

**Kiara Greenly**

**Hannah Pace**

**Adele Slizewski**

**Bethany Collins**

**Philip Clarke**

**Lucinda Hampton**

**Dr. Arianna Taylor**

**Amelia Cooper**

**Catherine Harris**

**Thomas Matthews**

**Cameron Reed**

**Kevin Kolinsky**

**Alec Morris**

**Jamie Myles**

**Oliver Greene**

**Jordan Armstrong**

**Carter Stone**

**Christopher Wilcox**

So, submissions are closed for now, but I'll be accepting tail-section survivors, Others, freighter folk and DHARMA Initiative people as soon as the story starts rolling along. I've said it before but I'll say it again: thank you all so much for submitting your OC's! I'm starting the chapter now, so I should have the first chapter posted within days!


	4. Arrival, Hope and Confusion

**Whatever it Takes**

**Chapter 1**

Her face was consumed with raging fire; she knew she was going, fading, hovering somewhere between life and death, but the locale was unfamiliar, her skin twitching underneath the burning flames. All around her were screams, echoing throughout this new purgatory and through her eardrums, tearing at her soul.

These were the screams of those in need.

Adele knew that, no matter how much pain she was in, no matter how undistinguished this location was to her, that those screams - those were the screams of those who, despite her pain, needed her to put aside her misery and help them. Rising into a sitting position, she pressed her face between her knees to catch her breath, and, with all the strength she could muster, Adele Slizewski pulled her limp form up from the gravel. There was a sharp pain in her leg, something that she couldn't yet diagnose, but from her one good eye she saw the flora and fauna.

Trees the size of skyscrapers jutted out in to the tropical sky, poking it, their shadows engulfing Adele's small yet intimidating presence. Beneath her, blades of grass ruffled her feet, her shoes having been thrown off her in whatever brought her to this mystical place. Animals chirped wildly, often over-shadowed by the screams of the desperate.

Huffing and puffing, Adele started a slow yet steady pace toward the screams, her legs pounding, her face in searing agony. No, she couldn't stop now. Those screams, though coming from the lips of strangers, attracted her, lured her in. It wasn't Adele's natural instinct to walk straight in to chaos like this, but there was no other way to slice it:

Something bad had happened here.

Reaching an opening in the thick, prickly bushes, Adele peered over the jungle and was horrified. A flaming, mass armageddon was prominent on the sand. Bloodied peopleBloody bodies, most already deceased, were strewn all around. Adele was immediately drawn to a large piece of shrapnel, hanging carelessly, tilting in the air, and when her eyes shot to the figures beneath it, she noticed a blonde girl of no older than twenty-five25, clearly a fewcouple months pregnant;, completely oblivious to the thing that was going to kill her.

"Move!"

Adele sprinted forward, her hands cupping around her lips as she shouted as loud as her feeble, scared voice could muster. She hurtled over the dead, deceased and the injured as the plane wing swung once more, coming straight toward the pregnant girl. Adele hit her, and (in a way that you should never touch a pregnant woman,) lifted her off the beach, grimacing, and tossed her out of the way as the wing came down, exploding in a ball of fire inches behind Adele's feet, now charred and covered in human flesh.

"Stay here," said Adele firmly, brushing herself off as she ignored the pregnant girl's groans and cries. "I'll get someone to help you - _stay here!_" There was no time to waste, no halting, as the yells and screams of the desperate became worse and worse.

Jamie Myles darted through the carnage without another thought. No, he didn't want to linger on the fact that his eyes had not once closed as the plane hit the beach, as bodies were flung over his head. One girl, no older than five, rammed hard in to Jamie's face, and as he threw her off of him a luggage bag collapsed on her, killing her instantly. No, there was no time to dwell on that. There was only time to save those who needed help.

Immediately, Jamie's military instincts had kicked in, his eyes darting around like those of a hawk. A man in a suit resuscitated an elderly woman feet away from him, as a pregnant girl was comforted by a large, hulking teddy bear-like man on the edge of the beach. Someone screamed for his son, and a Korean couple spoke rapidly in front of him.

"Hey, do you have a pen?" A younger kid rushed up to Jamie, shaking him rather gruffly with a look of desperation on his face. "It's not for me; it's for the doctor!"

Jamie shook his head quickly, and the man darted away, clearly disappointed. The Marines had not trained him for this. So many were desperate, so many in need, and he temporarily paused, unsure of which direction to travel. Out of nowhere, an extremely attractive auburn-haired girl darted up to him, a bit shorter than he was, and immediately his eyebrows rose out of instinct.

"You think you could help?" The woman shrieked, over the roaring engine. Her bright blue eyes stared at him menacingly, and he immediately was furious at himself for taking time to stare at her curvy figure rather than helping the wounded. "Come on!"

"I'm Jamie," heHe murmured, as the girl grasped his muscular arm, pulling him forward across the beach, over the carcasses everywhere.

"Amelia Cooper," She whispered, clearly not caring what Jamie's name was, but wanting to be polite. "We need to get all of these people off of the beach, okay?" Amelia formed her hands in to a circle, like a mega-phone, and shouted, "Everyone, off the beach! Get as far in to the jungle as you can, and gather together!"

Amelia sprinted off, leaving Jamie standing completely star-struck. Well, wasn't _she _something? Chuckling to himself, he was caught off-guard by a girl screaming, directly underneath the piece of plane he was standing on.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Honey," Jamie scrambled off the metal, lifting it with his enormous guns and tossing it to the side. The girl, not much older than 10, looked absolutely horrified, and she instinctively reached forward, wrapping her arms around Jamie. He patted her on the back, awestruck.

"I'm scared," She whispered.

"I know, Honey," He spoke in to her arms. "We all are, trust me. What's your name?"

"I'm Kiara Greenly," The tear-tracked girl whispered. She refused to let go of Jamie, letting out a small whimper in to his shoulders. "Have you seen my dad anywhere?"

"I'll let you know if I do, okay, Honey?" spoke Jamie softly. "Go over there, in to the jungle, and find a woman named Amelia, alright? I'll keep my eyes peeled for him."

Kiara nodded at once, scampering off in to the woods, while Jamie rose back to his feet and darted around for yet another victim to help. There were always more faces, always more bodies, always more screams, but Jamie's training made him smart enough to know when injuries were too severe to save. It shouldn't have been that way, but it was.

Where the hell _were _they?

Scarlett Lexington couldn't take this shit.

The dead bodies, stacked so high that you could barely see over them, it absolutely horrified her. Underneath her fiery temper and façade of strong, cool and collected, Scarlett had absolutely no idea what to do. Clearly her skills as a journalist weren't of use here, and as much as she wanted to help, it wasn't like there was anything she could add to the successful saving of the corpses.

No, they reminded her of Danny too much, and that was something she was _not _facing.

Scarlett patrolled through the jungle, her long legs stepping far over the sharp, tall grass that stuck out of the forest floor. All that ran through Scarlett's mind were her sights from seconds before this plane crash - clearly, by now she had deduced that it _was _a plane crash. Scarlett's mind was racing with possibilities, and she really, truthfully wanted to help. She had tried, reaching underneath a piece of metal to grab out a girl who was screaming, crying for her mother, only to find that the girl had lost both of her legs. Scarlett had lost it, and she had lost it even more when, going to get someone else to help her lift the shrapnel, it exploded, sending chunks of the girl to cling to Scarlett's skin. No, she hadn't been able to handle it. She had left; simple as that, and anyone who wanted to judge her was going to face Scarlett in all of her hot-headed glory.

_"Can I get you anything?" __The flight attendant was pretty attractive; shoulder-length, luxurious brown hair, velvety brown eyes, tanned skin, wearing the bright blue uniform that they all wore. There was the slightest hint of an Australian accent in his seductive voice, clearly trying his best to flirt with Scarlett. Frankly, she kind of pitied him._

_"No, thank you," said Scarlett politely, leaning back in to her chair and pulling on a pair of headphones, drowning herself in some tunes, her eyes closing. Seconds later, she sensed the presence of someone, and opened back up her eyes to see Eager Flight Attendant-Man, still standing over her like a lapdog._

_"Are you sure?" asked the man, his eyebrows rising. "A pretty lady like you should be able to get whatever you like." Scarlett almost chuckled at his poor pick-up lines clearly read off-line somewhere. _

_"No, I'm really alright," smiled Scarlett, trying her best to keep her patience._

_"Well, I'm Beau, if you need anything," Beau winked, strolling down the aisle without a care in a world, as Scarlett shook her head, lapsing back in to her chair and ignoring Mr. Eager Flight Attendant. Suddenly, an athletic shoe rammed in to her foot, causing her to jerk forward, ripping out her ear-buds and cursing._

_"Sorry!" shouted a man in a hoodie, with a British accent. "I-I'm sorry!" He ran past her still, not even bothering to see if she was okay, as a swarm of flight attendants flagged him down the airplane, waving their fists and shouting._

_Scarlett grinned, leaning back once more, but a sudden turbulence shook the plane angrily, and she was flung from her seat, not wearing a seatbelt, in to the aisle. The intercom buzzed, a flight attendant saying something about how they were all still safe, but Scarlett's leg, jammed under a chair, was pinning her down._

_"Here, let me help you," said a man in a suit, ignoring the shaking plane as he reached forward, smiling, to pull Scarlett off the shag carpet. "I'm Jack, Jack Shephard."_

_"Scarlett Lexington," said Scarlett, shaking his hand and smiling slightly. "Thank you so much, I really-"_

_Another shaking of the plane flung her off of her feet, tumbling down the aisle until she rammed in to a back wall, the wall between the tail-section and the middle-section. To her horror, she saw the entire tail of the plane ripping apart, men and women screaming, children crying, as it slammed in to the ground, and Scarlett clung to the wall for her life as they were going down, down, down-_

"You're not a fan of the bodies, either?" A man spoke. Scarlett was pulled back in to reality, rising from the rock she had sat on, lost in thought, as the man walked out from the bushes. He was heavily covered in tattoos, shoulder-length jet-black hair with a soul patch on his chin. "I couldn't take it."

"Me neither," spoke Scarlett quietly, eyeing the man. Like most, he seemed to be checking her out, but she was so used to it by now that she didn't even make a sarcastic, rude comment toward him. "I'm Scarlett Lexington."

"Kevin Kolinsky," Kevin stuck his hand forward, firmly shaking Scarlett's. "Where do you think we are?"

"No idea," shrugged Scarlett.

"Doc's set up some sort of gathering off toward the edge of the beach," spoke Kevin quietly, sitting down next to Scarlett. "Some chick, Amelia, she's kind of the automatic leader; same with Jack, the doc, but he's more out on the beach, tending to the bodies, you know? Man, Amelia's trying to show that she's leader-" Kevin laughed, "but, really, who's gonna listen to her?"

Scarlett laughed her velvety laugh. "She really thinks she can control us? In _this _chaos?"

Kevin shrugged. "Eh, you gotta give her credit, really. She mostly just gathered everyone up, but now she's more off with the kids. One girl, she's searching long and hard for her dad, but I'm not sure he'll _ever _be found."

Scarlett frowned, twirling a piece of grass between her . The mention of children had brought her back to Danny, and she knew that, even though the dead bodies frightened her out of her wits, that all the survivors could use all the help they could get.

Standing up, Scarlett said, "We should probably go back there, shouldn't we?"

"Hey, I thought you were just as afraid as I am!" protested Kevin. "I'm not ready to see all those bodies; not ready at all."

"Well, then you can stay here!" shouted Scarlett angrily. She hadn't meant to lose her temper, but this Kevin, this selfish man, was upsetting her. Truth be told, she was a little agitated that _she _had been this selfish in the first place, but Kevin wasn't getting the hint, and it was frustrating Scarlett to no end. "Go ahead,; just sit here in the jungle while those people die. Look, I needed to take some time, because I couldn't take all those bodies out there, but you know what? If you really are just going to sit here, then fine by me."

"Geez!" shouted Kevin, holding up his hands as if she werewas shooting at him. "You've got a temper, don't you? I'm as frightened as you are, Honey. We're _all _frightened, in case you haven't realized, and I just show it differently than others do."

Scarlett ignored Kevin's last comment, walking back toward the beach with her back turned. "If we're going to survive, we've got to be strong. _I'm _trying my damn hardest right now to be as strong as I can, but _you?_" Scarlett spun around.

"Prove it."

"It's going to be okay, honeyHoney," Lucinda Hampton sat crouched in the jungle, her brunette hair pulled back in to a ponytail, her scrapes and abrasions all covered up in various roots, leaves and grass that she had pulled from the jungle and used as some sort of bandages. In her arms was Kiara, the young girl whose father hadn't been found, as she sobbed horribly. "Kiara, honeyHoney, we're going to try and find him, alright?"

"W-What if you c-can't?" cried Kiara, barely able to speak. "W-What happens _t-then?_"

"I don't know, sweetheartSweetheart," whispered Lucie in to the girl's arms. "I don't know any more than you do, Honey, but I do know that we're all here together right now and we're all safe, okay? I'm sure that rescue's going to be here soon, and then we'll be home and they'll search for your father, alright?"

"Okay," whispered Kiara, her tears still streaming on to Lucie's sleeve, but, as of now, Lucie felt that it was an improvement from twenty minutes ago, and for that, she was grateful. Truth be told, Lucie Hampton had no idea what she was doing. Sure, she was calm as all could be, but, just like the rest, she'd been tossed in to an unknown situation. Her practice, going to school for therapy, was going to come in handy for the younger kids, but still, she was no more intelligent on their situation than the rest!

Feet from Kiara's and Lucie's hug, in Amelia's sort of make-shift group of survivors lay Air Marshall Edward Mars. Having been hurt badly in the crash, he was clinging to life, but standing above his unconscious form was Dr. Arianna Taylor. Her bright red hair was pulled back in to a bandana, as her slender form leaned over the Marshall's body.

"I bet you're happy you have me, aren't you, Jack?" smiled Arianna, looking over her shoulder to Jack, who stood anxiously by her side. "Reminds you of UCLA?"

"I can't thank you enough, Arianna," Jack smiled back, his eyes full of anxiety and fear as he watched Arianna tending to the Marshall's wounds. "Do you think he'll be okay?"

"I can only hope," said Arianna hopelessly. "If we had some good equipment I could run a few scans, but I'm just trying to do the best that I can, just like you!"

"Hey, hey, _hey," _Jack calmed her down, patting her on the back as she stepped away from the Marshall's body.

"I can't do this, Jack," sobbed Arianna. "I really, really can't."

"Listen to me, Ari," Jack said, calm and collected. "You've been my best friend for years. I have no doubt that your skills are as good, if not better, than mine, and I have no clue what I'm doing either. All we've got to do is whatever it takes to survive, right?"

"Whatever it takes," murmured Arianna, wiping her tears and blowing her nose in to the sleeve of her shirt. "_God_, Jack, what have we gotten ourselves _in_ to?"

Night had fallen on the beach, as rag-tag bands of survivors gathered in small circles around teensy fires that had been built all along the coast of the beach. Arianna, Jack, Amelia and Jamie were huddled around one, with Lucie by their side, comforting the crying Kiara. No one spoke. All were horrified at the prospects of what could be happening to them, and no one wanted to say that rescue hadn't come yet, because that was negativity.

AllHope was all they had was hope.

Far down from Jack's circle, a Middle Eastern-looking man stood, tossing large logs inin to a fire that was already roaring far above his head. His black hair was curly and greasy, past his shoulders, and he was muscular, wearing very muscular, in only a black tank-top.

"Hey, you."

He pointed to a younger-looking guy, curled up around the sand and covered in a jacket that must've been scrounged from one of the dead bodies. "Come help me with this, please."

"Me?"

Thomas Matthews pointed to himself. His tousled dark blondblonde-ish brown-ish hair was covered in dirt and blood, his greygray eyes completely shocked.

"No, the _other _you," The man rolled his eyes. "Of course, you. I'm making a signal fire, so it's easier for the helicopters to find us."

"You think they're coming?" Thomas stretched, itching his elbow nonchalantly.

"Yes," said the man simply. "I'm Sayid."

"Thomas Matthews," spoke Thomas quietly. The man's intimidating presence scared him a bit, like everything on the island was, but he tried his best not to show it. After a while, he said gloomily, "Do you really think they're coming?"

Sayid shoved one of the logs in his hand, and Thomas tossed it in to the fire as the flames escalated a bit higher. "I can only hope, Thomas. That's all we can do."

Nearing the wreckage and the corpses and the smell sat a beautiful Southern belle, with a plaid shirt, bright blonde hair, riding jeans and a bright pink cowboy hat. Bethany Collins studied all the survivors carefully. Beth was particularly fascinated by the Korean couple, who seemed to be feuding viciously, though no one could understand them. Near her was someone she recognized; Shannon Rutherford, a girl she had lived with in a joint house with her ex-boyfriend a couple of years ago, though she doubted Shannon would recognize her, and, besides, Shannon had always been a brat. Shannon was feuding with her gorgeous step-brother, Boone; oh yes, all of the girls had fawned over him years ago, and though Beth found him quite attractive, he really didn't seem to be her type.

There was the young boy, Walt, and his father Michael; Beth had helped him a couple of seconds after the crash, but only really on to his feet and then out of the way. The older guy, Locke, had introduced himself politely to her, but he seemed a bit creepy, to be frank. Claire and Hurley, the big teddy-bear, were discussing her pregnancy. Beth had a weird fascination with learning names, something that had always been her strong suit, and she doubted that they'd be found soon. Oh sure, most of the adults were trying to reassure the younger folk, mainly Walt and Kiara, that they'd be rescued, but Beth doubted it. No, the only way she was going to survive was by making friends.

And then, there was Sawyer.

Oh yes, Sawyer. Her obsession, the thing that most intrigued her and frightened her at the same time.

_"Beth?" __Beth's mother Shelby, the typical quiet Southern mom, knocked on the door, smiling. "Happy birthday, sweetheart!" _

_"Thank you, Mom," smiled Beth back cheerily, but a little confused. "I thought you were going to bed!"_

_"Beth, can you come downstairs? Your father and I need to talk with you," Shelby said airily, walking out of the room. Beth was mystified. What was it? Her birthday was nearly gone, it was past midnight and she had plans in the morning - it wasn't like her mother to keep her up late unless she absolutely needed to say something._

_Beth walked through the pristine hall of her house, down the rickety flight of stairs and in to the kitchen, where her mom and father Joseph sat, twiddling his fingers as he hummed softly. "What's up?"_

_"Hi, sweetheart," murmured Joseph, smiling at his only child._

_"What's wrong?" Beth sensed it, especially since her parents were being almost _too _friendly with her. _

_"Beth, your father and I have something we need to tell you," said Shelby quietly, but then she turned to her husband, frowning. _

_"Beth, you're adopted," spoke Joseph quickly. Clearly, he was more of a "Tear off the bandage quickly" type of guy. "Your mother and I adopted you when you were younger than a year old, and we felt that you deserved to know on your 30th birthday."_

_Beth looked face-to-face, from Shelby's, sobbing, to Joseph's, stoic; why had they kept this a secret from her? Clearly, she was going to be more upset if they hid it!_

_"That's not all, is it." That wasn't a question; it was a statement. Beth knew her parents too well, and she knew when they were hiding something - at least, she thought she did, but this revelation had completely shocked her._

_Shelby spoke._

_"You have a brother, Beth."_

Beth had made it her life's goal to find her brother. The library told her that her parents were dead, her brother missing, and as she started attending veterinarian school, it took her a whole three years before she realized his name _wasn't _James Ford. Years after that, Beth searched and searched. When things got hard, she wanted to give up.

She didn't.

Beth wasn't sure what her strong intrigue toward Sawyer's existence was, but it had haunted her to no end when she couldn't find him. Three times she'd tracked him down to a location, a hotel room, somewhere, but when she arrived, she'd missed him by hours. Finally, in Sydney, she saw him. It was her brother from the pictures, sitting outside some sleazy café drinking a coffee. Right there was everything she had wanted, and Beth hated herself for the fact that she couldn't even say hi to him. She was too afraid.

A week after finding him, but not having said anything to him, she boarded the plane and headed back to LA, which was when the plane crashed.

There he was, lounging around nonchalantly, a cigarette in hand, looking out at the water as if he was completely oblivious to the circles of refugees around him. There was arrogance and almost laziness of Sawyer that Beth loved, that she wanted in herself. Beth wanted to just walk up to Sawyer, proclaim that she was his sister and then move forward from there, as family.

She couldn't do it.

"Jesus Christ, Charlie Pace!" After taking a nice hit in the jungle, Philip Clarke walked back toward the beach, rolling up his sleeves. His false tooth glimmered, his blue eyes vibrant and excited as the drugs seeped in to his system. "D'you remember me?"

Charlie Pace sat near the fire, buried inside a hoodie and striped T-shirt, as he attempted to fall asleep. His blonde hair was spiked with dirt and grime, and huddled next to him was a beautiful woman, with mousy blonde, wavy hair and wide bright green eyes, wide open as Charlie attempted to fall asleep. Upon hearing Phil, Charlie rose, pausing.

"Phil?" He said, after a long inspection of Phil's small, crumpled form. "Phil Clarke, from White Lightning? It _can't _be you!"

Charlie rose from the sand, embracing Phil like a brother, while the woman stirred angrily, him having kneed her directly in the face.

"Watch it Charlie!" shouted the woman, punching Charlie square in the back of the knee. Like both Phil _and _Charlie, there was a hint of an Irish accent in her face.

"Phil, this is my little sister Hannah," said Charlie, pointing to the woman on the sand. She slightly inclined her head. "Hannah, ever heard of White Lightning?"

"_Sure,_" said Hannah, the sarcasm ringing in her voice, but both Charlie and Phil were either too stupid or too high to notice it.

"We toured together!" smiled Phil, his eyes looking upward as if there was a memory above their heads that he was staring at. "Remember that, Charlie? Good times!"

"Ah yeah, bloody hell," laughed Charlie, wiping a tear from his eye. The two men were obviously drunk off of no sleep and the hysteria of the plane crash, and the story was making them both keel over in laughter. "Remember Ian, in the bathroom?"

"Such a lightweight!" exclaimed Phil, and they fell to the ground in laughter while Hannah looked at her brother, clearly dying, and almost laughed at his stupidity. He might've not been the smartest person, but he was all she had.

Hannah had been horrified the _second _that the airplane had hit the ground, and she'd immediately searched for Charlie; there he was, buried under wreckage. Oh, Hannah had been afraid, all right, but she'd pulled through. Charlie was the only thing she had in wherever the hell they were, and as stupid as he seemed, Charlie really did watch out for her. Hannah loved him, like any sister loved their brother, and she giggled a little as Phil and Charlie began reciting a time that one of their band mates had gotten in a bar fight.

Amelia Cooper felt confident in the survivors. They'd slept spread out on the beach, in little knots of those who had befriended one another, with Amelia in a group consisting of herself, Jack, Arianna, Jamie, Lucie, Kiara and Kate Austen, a good-looking woman who was strong and mostly kept to herself.

In the morning, Amelia was the first out of her circle to rise. Around the beach, all slept except John Locke, who sat by the water, his feet dipped in the waves. Quietly, Amelia tip-toed past him, not really wanting to get in a conversation, but she made noise as she stepped on a plane wing and Locke turned around, simply inclining his head and turning back to face the waves.

However, as Amelia started to walk toward the jungle, she was interrupted by rustling in her group; Jack was rising, and around him, the rest began to wake. Amelia waved to them, as they acknowledged her, and she went back to join them.

"Up early, are you?" smiled Lucie, wrapping her arms around Amelia for a short hug. With her degree in therapy, Lucie had really helped Amelia with taking care of Kiara - her father still hadn't been found - and, for that, Amelia was grateful.

"Always," Amelia grimaced. "Not sure why, but I am."

"Do you agree with me, Amelia?" asked Jack suddenly. His face was tired, bags underneath his eyes, with Dr. Taylor by his side. All were aware that Arianna and Jack had been friends for years, but no one was really sure how romantic or otherwise they were with one another.

"With what?" asked Amelia, her face scrunching up in confusion.

"We have to find the transceiver," said Kate quietly, speaking for one of the first times that day. "We might be able to send up a message to any rescuers circling overhead."

"Absolutely," said Amelia automatically. "Let's go."

Adele Slizewski woke from in the jungle, her ponytail pushed up in a comfortable nook of a tree, her legs sprawled out awkwardly. She'd fallen asleep in the jungle, far away from all the cliques and drama, but close enough so that she was protected from any possible threats. Groaning, Adele pulled herself in to a sitting position and began to walk toward the beach.

The leaves rustled, a man rushing forward and pinning Adele to the ground. She screamed out in agony, completely caught off-guard, but the man threw his arm around her face, covering her mouth. She bit him, angrily, and he let go, yelping.

"Get _off _me!" Adele spun around, connecting her fist with his throat, and his claws retraced from her arm. Reaching in to her pocket, she pulled out the blade she carried everywhere, ready to strike, but the man kicked her in the head, and she crumpled, unconscious, to the ground.

**Author's Note: **Wow, guys, I really can't thank all of you enough for your amazing characters - I look forward to writing them, because this is going to be one hell of a ride! A special thanks to the most amazing beta ever, Lindsay (Wing-Clipped-Dove) who is the most amazing person ever, and I thank her for correcting my poor grammar. Please leave reviews, and let me know if I'm writing your characters all right! And yes, all characters weren't featured in this - it's mainly because of the fact that I don't think I can cram 20 characters in to one chapter. All the characters that weren't mentioned in this chapter will appear in Chapter 2, I promise!


	5. Searching, Fighting and Longing

Whatever it Takes

Chapter 2

Arianna Taylor walked along the beach, her feet treading carefully through the coarse sand. The bandana on her head was loose, dangling gently by a thread of orange hair, and she sighed, taking it off and throwing it in to the water, where it floated off into whatever lay beyond the horizon.

With Jack out on a mission to find the transceiver, Amelia with him, Arianna had become leader by process of elimination, and she dully looked over her shoulder to make sure that her shadow was still there; sure enough, a large, buff man wielding a gun was right behind her back. Alec Morris' bright brown eyes stared down at his feet, but he carefully treaded behind Dr. Taylor, twirling a gun that he had found with one of the dead bodies between his fingers.

"Alec, you know I can be on my own, right?" said Arianna abruptly. She didn't think that Alec was that bad of a person, but he seemed to believe that Arianna would get killed if she strayed ten feet from Amelia's make-shift camp, and this attitude was bothering Arianna to no end.

"Yes, I do," said Alec simply, "but I'm not risking losing you, Dr. Taylor. You're the only hope we have." His voice was mellow and calm, but there was a hint of attitude and of a large temper in him.

Alec was really only watching Arianna due to nerves. Being alone in a group this large was making him frightened, and he figured that if he clung to someone, he'd make it through this rough patch. His hands shook, like they always did when he got anxious, and he gripped the gun tightly, calming them down.

They were going to find him.

"I'm heading back," said Arianna, and when Alec trailed after her, she shouted, "I'm fine!" He froze in his tracks, and Arianna, too upset and nervous and scared of the pressure to say anything else, simply walked toward the jungle. Alec stayed put, crouching toward the edge of the water and picking up a rock to toss in to the waves, but his trembling hands caused him to drop it straight on to the ground, and he sighed.

Arianna reached the edge of the beach, the makeshift shelter, where a majority of the survivors were stationed. With Jack, Amelia and some others searching for the transceiver, the authority position that had been thrust upon her before she could even dispute it. People tended to follow Arianna, and whether it was a blessing or a curse, she really had no idea.

Lucinda Hampton sat off toward the fray of the group, out of the main circle, and while Arianna knew she was needed in the medical tent, she couldn't help but waltz over to Lucie's area and sit down next to the woman. "Are you alright?"

"No," said Lucie lamely. Her hair was in frays, a split end dangling over her forehead and down to her mouth, and she blew on it hopelessly. "I'm not old enough to be a mother, and Kiara's father hasn't appeared yet."

"Where is she now?" asked Arianna anxiously. Lucie pointed to the beach, where Kiara was running around in circles with the other young kid, Walt, in a game of tag, while his father Michael watched from the sidelines. "Well, that's good that she's got a friend."

"Yeah," said Lucie, nodding slightly. "I mean, I love kids, but I have no idea how to react with her. 'Cause, let's be honest-" Her voice sank down in to a whisper, "-her father is probably not going to be found, and as much as I hate to be negative…"

"Oh, we're not sure yet, Lucie," said Arianna quickly. She felt for the poor girl, Kiara, as it must've been awful to be stranded alone in a place like this without a parent. "Maybe we'll find her father, and you'll be relieved."

"Maybe," said Lucie, lost in thought. She clung back to reality suddenly. "Oh, you're wanted in the medical tent, by the way."

"Already on it," Arianna groaned, dusting sand off of her backside and walking quickly toward the medical tent. Claire Littleton lay against the wall, asleep; neither Arianna nor Jack felt comfortable delivering her baby here, but they had a couple of weeks to stall, so Claire was kept under constant supervision by someone. The Marshall lay unconscious on a blanket on the ground, while he was tended to by a skinny man with pale skin, spiked red hair and green eyes, clearly paranoid. "How's he doing?"

"I have no idea!" sighed Jordan Armstrong, rising from the ground and tossing his arms to his side in a sort of a temper tantrum. "He still hasn't moved!" Jordan hadn't wanted to be on medical tent duty, but he warily volunteered - he was the only one - and was placed under the ranks of Dr. Taylor and Dr. Shephard as their medical assistant. "I don't know what I'm doing, Doc, and I'm sorry if I've missed something-"

"Jordan." Arianna took a deep breath. "Calm down. We don't expect anything more than you." She patted the younger man on the back, as he was clearly nervous. "How's Claire doing? Has she woken?"

Jordan shook his head. "No, she hasn't, but I've had both the younger kids in here with a couple of cuts on the knees; told them just to rinse it off - that was the right thing to do, right?" His eyes were in frenzy, his body trembling from exhaustion and pressure.

Arianna nodded once more. "You're doing fine, Jordan. Go take a break, alright?"

Jordan inclined his head, stepping out of the tent with a shake, while Claire rested peacefully and the Marshall was still frozen in time. Arianna sank to the ground to check him, but, suddenly, the Marshall jumped out of unconsciousness, shaking his head vigorously from side to side. Arianna was shocked.

"Sir?" Dr. Taylor asked, petrified. No, calm down Arianna! "Sir, are you alright?"

The Marshall's glassy eyes stared straight in to Arianna's, and he only spoke three words, frantic, searching, his arms flailing as he began succumbing to wounds from the crash:

"Where is she?"

The group moved in a slow, silent line, no one daring to stray from it, no one speaking. Sounds from the jungle rang in their ears, chirping of crickets and growling of far-off animals frightening them, but they did not stop. Leading the group was Jack Shephard, a hand-made knife blade gripped tightly in his left hand as his eyes swung wildly from side to side. Behind him was Amelia, keeping a careful distance from Jack but still close enough to the front, and Jamie, right behind her, watching their every move. Next was Kate Austen, the quiet one, whom hadn't said much during her time on the Island but was the muscle that the group needed. Next was Hannah Pace, who shouldn't have been there but, after cursing Jack out for an hour straight, had been reluctantly allowed to come, and finally was Sawyer, cocky Sawyer, strolling carefully in the back, whistling nonchalantly.

"Could you knock it off?" Jack finally said impatiently, and Sawyer's whistling stopped.

"Sorry, Doc," Sawyer said, mock-innocently, winking at Hannah. She only rolled her eyes, not wanting to seem unprofessional to the group. This was Hannah's chance to prove herself to them, and, because of her height and without a real military or leadership background like the rest, Hannah knew that they already underestimated her, particularly Jack. As she thought about this, she tripped over a root, catching herself; Sawyer sniggered, and Hannah flipped him off with a hand carefully hidden behind her back.

They'd been searching for at least a couple of hours with no luck. The cockpit had been buried so far in to the jungle that Kate, at least, didn't think they'd ever find it, but Jack was so determined that no one else wanted to tell him different.

"Watch your step," murmured Jamie, to Amelia, reaching out his hand for her to grab as they came upon a tree, strewn in front of them a couple feet off the ground.

"I can do it on my own, thank you very much," growled Amelia, hoisting herself up over the tree angrily, and landing on her own two feet. Jamie laughed once more, his deep, hearty laugh, and did a back-flip over the wall, landing inches from Amelia. "Cocky" was all she murmured, but Jamie only laughed once more.

"I think we're almost there," said Jack to the group, not peeling his eyes from the jungle, not even turning to face them. "It couldn't have strayed that far from the plane-"

"How do you know?" asked Sawyer rudely. "I'm sorry, Doc, but for all we know the cockpit is buried 20,000 feet in the middle of the ocean. No one was even awake to see it happen-"

"I was," said Kate quietly. They all turned to her. She was so careful about when she spoke, so silent, that it was very easy to forget about her presence. "My eyes never closed." She looked straight at Sawyer. "Trust me; the cockpit's here."

"I found it!" squealed Hannah with excitement. She'd been searching on her own, not even paying attention to the conversation between Jack, Amelia, Jamie, Kate and Sawyer, and she'd located a flaming wreckage far in to the jungle. All six sprinted forward, through bushes, Jack chopping at them with his blade, until they were close enough to see it. The cockpit was vertical, standing straight up toward the sky, flaming, smoke rising up above the trees and out of sight, dead bodies that had fallen out of it piled at the foot of the cockpit, a smell just as bad as the one in the fuselage emanating from the front end.

Jack vaulted himself forward, up and over the front edge of the cockpit and the bodies and inside. The seats had been torn from the plane, luggage cases open everywhere, and lying in front of him was a gun, a Glock, which he quickly grabbed in his hand and stuffed in his pocket - he'd rather that he had it, than someone like Sawyer. Amelia was next, Jack pulling both of her arms up and over in to the cockpit.

"You go on," said Jamie, pulling himself up with ease. "We'll meet you at the top; it's going to be rough, so we might as well start now."

Jack nodded, as he scampered up the vertical ramp, grabbing seat by seat, wall by wall as he felt gravity pulling him toward the base. He could see the door, a large metal one, at the head of the plane, but it seemed so far up, and the plane was so steep that Jack couldn't even imagine getting up there.

"Here, I got this," Jamie and Amelia had already lifted Kate, Hannah and Sawyer in to the plane, and Jamie pushed himself in front of Jack. Going at speeds that only someone trained in the military field could go, Jamie's hands just seemed to find the positions of where to go on the plane as he practically ran up the cockpit. Reaching the top in less than a minute, he bared his teeth toward them in a grin. "Alright, now all of you have just got to get a little up and I'll pull you toward the top."

Amelia gulped, nodding; she had made it a bit farther than Jack had, and was closest to Jamie. Hoisting herself over a seat, Amelia gripped on for dear life, nearly dropping and wiping out Jack, Hannah, Kate and Sawyer, but Jamie gripped her hand, tossing her over his shoulder as she carefully hung behind a chair, her feet dwindling over the edge.

"That's better," smiled Jamie. Amelia rolled her eyes at his cockiness, but he didn't seem to notice. Within minutes, Hannah and Jack were at the top of the cockpit with Jamie and Amelia, Kate and Sawyer keeping guard at the edge of the plane.

Jamie kicked down the door, and it revealed the cockpit, shattered glass spilling everywhere, the bodies of the pilot and co-pilot still buckled up, frozen, blood covering the entire area.

"Find the transceiver," Jack seemed to be the only one who hadn't lost it and wasn't thrown off by the two dead bodies inches from them. They began to tear apart the pilot's cabin, only Jack willing to search underneath the pilot's and co-pilot's seats.

Suddenly, the seat above Jack started to rattle. "Guys!" Jack pulled himself up from underneath the seat, and Hannah, Amelia and Jamie all looked on in horror as the pilot began to shake, his eyes widening and blinking rapidly, his legs clearly broken.

"Sir, are you alright?" asked Amelia, getting extremely close to him. "Do you remember anything? Does anything hurt?"

"D-Did the plane crash?" The pilot said, barely audible to the human ear. His mouth was foaming, his face bloodied and his eyes clearly spinning around in circles.

Jack nodded.

"H-How many s-s-survivors?" The pilot murmured.

"Around 50," whispered Hannah, wiping the tears out of her eyes with one hand as she held the pilot's with her other. It was clear that he was hovering somewhere between life and death, non-committal as he struggled to hang on.

"W-We, we were thousands of f-feet off-course when it c-crashed," began the pilot. "The t-turbulence…if they're l-looking, it's in the wrong p-place."

Amelia's stomach dropped. They weren't going to be leaving anytime soon. "Do you have a transceiver? Something that can send out a signal for rescue?"

"Y-Yeah, I'll g-get it," said the pilot, against the protests of the others, who ushered him to sit back down. Very wobbly and shaky, he rose from his seat, walking slowly toward the corner of the cockpit. Out of nowhere, the windshield shattered in to bits as a large pillar of black smoke entered the cockpit. Hannah screamed, flinging herself against the back wall, while Jack, Jamie and Amelia all cowered, Jack reaching to save the pilot. The smoke got there first, grasping the pilot with something like a hand and pulling him out of the cockpit with rage as the pilot thrashed, flailed and screamed. It became eerily silent, only the pilot's blood left on the windshield.

"Get out! Get out!" Jamie screamed, the only one able to move. He shoved Amelia out of the door and down, out of sight, as the rushing noise that the smoke had made sounded like it was returning to them. "Jack! Get out of here!"

Jack ignored Hannah's and Jamie's pleas, grabbing the transceiver the pilot had located and diving out the cockpit, Jamie and Hannah behind him. They reached the bottom where Kate and Sawyer stood, in horror. "Run!"

The six sped through the jungle, their feet flying, Jamie leading the pack, as Amelia and Hannah struggled to keep up. The jungle became a blur, their only conscious thought that there was a large roaring, rustling sound behind them, trying to catch them, kill them, take them away. Jamie halted, rushing behind Kate, Sawyer and Jack and grabbing Amelia, tossing her over his shoulders and booking it; she'd stubbed her foot on a rock and couldn't keep up.

"Guys!" Hannah stood, petrified, as they gaped at her in horror. The smoke was right behind them! "Look."

Suspended above their heads, clearly visible and drenched in blood, was the pilot's body, impaled on a tree, dangling for all to see.

"So, this chick is lying on the floor, vomiting up wine and the tiger's growling from his cage, the baby's sobbing, and I'm just dying-" Phil Clarke busted up in to laughter, the men around him echoing it as well as he choked on his giggles, not even able to finish his story. They sat around in a circle in the middle of the jungle, a bottle of wine found on the plane passed between them as they alternated taking swigs.

"Oh, my, stop!" Charlie slurred, raising his arms but not able to hold them in that position for too long. "I'm dead! You've killed me!" He rolled backwards in his drunken laughter, his hands on his stomach, his mouth cackling. "So, what happens next?"

"That's the best part - I don't remember!" Phil said, and that was it; they all lost it. Kevin Kolinsky began rolling around in the grass, his laughter the most distinct. Charlie Pace was in a silent fit of giggles, clutching his stomach. Ethan Rom, a man with a bird-like nose around Charlie's and Phil's age, bashed his fists against the floor, tears streaming from his face. Also with them were two more; the first, Carter Stone, had wild and shaggy black hair, bright hazel eyes and was very muscular, only wearing a button down shirt and some shacks, as well as a black tie. Next to him, holding his head in agony was 15-year old Cam Reed, his splitting headache from his drinking party last night with Charlie and Phil horrifying him.

"Oh man," Carter moaned, dying in a fit of laughter like the rest. "Hey, have you guys seen that Scarlett chick? What do you think?"

"Oh, don't even bring her up," Kevin groaned. "She's a nasty one - sexy, alright, but a nasty temper. She blew up on me yesterday because she was too afraid to help with the bodies!" He laughed once, a sharp inhale. "I swear to God, she's going to be trouble."

"Jesus, can you keep it down?" growled Cam. "I'm a little hung over, in case you can't tell, and you're practically shouting!" Phil, Charlie, Kevin, Ethan and Carter immediately stopped laughing, and stared straight at him. "What?" His temper was boiling.

"What the hell are you doing?" Cam realized immediately that they'd been looking at the woman behind him, not him. She had very, very curly blonde hair and blue eyes of rage, her hands balled in to fists. "Are you all just sitting here drinking while we search through piles of dead bodies? Even the KIDS are helping! You have some nerve!"

"Buzz-kill," murmured Charlie quietly.

"Come on, with me, right now!" shouted the woman. "We're going to see Dr. Taylor."

"Who the hell are you?" exclaimed Carter. "Excuse me, Honey, but none of us have even met you before, so why don't you just run along and mind your own business?"

"Cathy Harris, thank you very much!" She said indignantly. "And no, I will not! If you expect to eat our food, sleep in our campsite and have access to our doctors, then you better start pulling your weight around here! Let's go, to Dr. Taylor's, or I'll bring her here, right now, and have her beat your asses senseless!"

"What's she going to do?" Ethan laughed. "We're in the middle of the jungle. There is no authority here, Honey. What, is she going to send us to jail?"

"You SICKEN me!" Cathy exclaimed, stomping her feet, but she knew in the back of her mind that they were right. There was nothing that Dr. Taylor or anyone could do to make these men see sense, but she prayed to God that they'd come around eventually. Flipping them all off, Cathy stormed away.

"God, what a buzz-kill," giggled Charlie, snorting. "Who does she think she is?"

"I'm gonna go," said Cam abruptly, rising from the ground and taking Charlie, Kevin, Ethan, Phil and Carter by surprise. "My head feels like it's going to explode, and that raging psycho's voice didn't help too much." He waved slightly. "Oh, and save me some wine, will you?"

Cam walked slowly through the forest, away from Ethan's, Carter's, Kevin's, Phil's and Charlie's voices; he could tell that, already, Charlie had started up another story about the times that Drive Shaft and White Lightning, Charlie's and Phil's bands, had toured together. Drudging his feet carefully over the dirt, he reached a metaphorical fork in the road, where he could turn toward the beach, where Dr. Taylor was running things, or out and adventure in the jungle.

Heading for the jungle, Cam's eyes were fluttering, his head spinning as the heat bared down on him. He began to hear shrieks in his head that grew louder and louder as he continued on.

"Help!" No, those weren't shrieks in his head. A woman was tied up against a tree, in a ponytail, her voice hoarse and her body covered in blood. Cam rushed forward, pulling his pocket knife from his jeans and slicing through the ropes binding her. She collapsed to the ground with a moan.

"Are you alright?" Cam looked at her in horror. He'd recognized her from the first day on the beach, one of the many faces in the chaos minutes after the plane crash.

"I'm going to kill that arrogant son of a bitch," Adele grasped Cam's knife from his hand and rushed away, not even thanking him. Cam followed after her as Adele stormed through the forest, twirling the knife between her fingers.

"What happened to you?" asked Cam. "The least you can do is thank me-"

Adele didn't respond. She started walking back toward Ethan's, Carter's, Kevin's, Charlie's and Phil's circle, as Cam could hear their voices growing louder and louder. "He told me he was going to come back for me later and finish me off." Adele's voice was quiet, the voice of someone obsessed with something. "Well, I'll show him."

Cam could see Ethan, Carter, Kevin, Charlie and Phil all cracking up, rolling around in the sand. Without warning, Adele rushed up behind Ethan, poking him on the shoulder; he spun around, and she plunged Cam's knife in to his stomach. Carter, Kevin, Charlie and Phil all reacted with horror, recoiling, as Adele began to slice through him. Cam covered his eyes, as Adele screamed, "You were going to finish me, weren't you?" Finally, Cam's eyes opened. Ethan Rom gurgled up a bubble of blood and collapsed.

Beth Collins and Lucie Hampton sat on the edge of the fuselage, their bodies covered in water, blood and sand as the smell of the fuselage sank in to their skin. In front of them was a stack of dead bodies, those who had been killed upon impact, as Beth and Lucie tried their best to identify them and see if they could find those who had gone missing, like Rose's husband, or Kiara's father.

"How've you been?" Beth said suddenly. Small talk had always been a weakness of hers, but she knew that they needed to get their minds off of what they were currently doing. Besides, Sawyer was out in the jungle right now, and she was horrified to think of what would happen if she had been on the same deserted island with him, but she hadn't even had the courage to introduce herself.

"Better," shrugged Lucie. "Michael's become sort of like a surrogate father to Kiara, so that takes that burden off me. I really hope we find her father."

"Me too," said Beth quietly. The man in front of her was sliced through the stomach, but she pulled out a wallet. His picture was him smiling happily in his license and, in his shirt pocket, was a photograph of the man holding a girl who was quite obviously Kiara on his shoulders. "Oh, my God. This is her father, alright."

Lucie looked over and, upon seeing the picture, pressed her hands to her lips. "Oh my God." The two women crouched down, silently praying simultaneously and not moving.

A rustling in the bushes interrupted their praying, and both opened their eyes; rushing in where Charlie, Phil, Kevin, Carter and Cam; Phil, and Carter holding a woman roughly by her arms as she thrashed, screaming, "Get the hell off of me!"

"What are you doing?" said Dr. Taylor sharply, coming out from the medical tent. "I've got patients in there; what is this? Are we really turning against one another?"

"She killed Ethan!" exclaimed Charlie. "She just, just came up, right behind us, and gutted him with her knife! She sliced right through the guy!"

Dr. Taylor's eyebrows rose, as Beth and Lucie gasped in horror. More survivors were coming up from around the beach. Rose emerged from the water, holding a cross to her lips as she had been kissing it; everyone knew that Rose's husband had gone to the bathroom before the crash, and had been in the tail-section, but she was confident he had survived. Boone, Hurley and Shannon came up, as did Michael, Walt and Kiara; Sayid emerged with Thomas, Scarlett and Cathy from the jungle, Alec behind Arianna. There was Jordan, as well as young Oliver Greene, a small teenager who pretty much kept to himself, and Professor Christopher Wilcox, from Oxford, who was smarter than most but stayed away from camp drama. The Korean couple appeared, as did Locke and Claire, waddling out of the medical tent; all circled around Phil, Carter and Adele.

"Adele, is that true?" Dr. Taylor vaguely remembered the woman's name after she had helped during the plane crash period when they arrived on the island.

Adele nodded. "They still haven't given me a chance to explain!"

"Please, do," said Arianna, inclining her head. Where were Jack and Amelia when she needed them? Or even Kate, Sawyer, Hannah and Jamie? They were all more suited for leading then Arianna, but all leaned their heads forward to hear Adele's story.

"I was on my own, in the jungle," said Adele quietly, barely audible. All had to lean in closer to hear her, as Phil and Carter struggled to hold on to her thrashing body, as she snarled at them. "Ethan came up behind me and knocked me unconscious. When I woke, I was tied up to a tree, far away from the jungle, but I wouldn't stop screaming. He told me that he was going to take me to the others, but first, he had to wait until nightfall. He tried gagging me, but I bit him, so he just took me far, far away and then left. That's when Cam found me, untied me, and I killed Ethan."

Arianna's head was spinning. "So you're saying…there are natives here?" Arianna turned to the rest of the group. "Does anyone remember seeing Ethan on the plane?"

No one nodded.

"Well, that's bloody good, but that doesn't just mean that she's allowed to come in a group of people and just-" Charlie mimicked Adele's slicing with his hands, "does it?"

Arianna looked from face to face. Phil, Carter and Kevin clearly all agreed with Charlie. Cam didn't know what to think. Adele's face was pleading, as if she was only trying to protect the rest of them. Arianna's face turned to the rest of the survivors - to the kids, like Oliver, Kiara and Walt, and to the older ones, like Rose, and Locke. She saw Claire, pregnant Claire, and her heart went out to the injured Marshall, up in the tent. Then there was Boone, who - no, don't think, no, he looked so much like Casey-

"That was fun," smiled Arianna. The fourteen-year old girl's hair still had that bright red, luxurious quality to it. She was quite the stunner, as she smiled in the moonlight in Casey's car.

Arianna's boyfriend, Casey Stewart, winked back at her. He was older, 18, and very good-looking, with a six-pack and flowing blonde hair. "You liked the movie?"

"I like you," laughed Arianna, "but the movie was good too!"

Casey giggled, wrapping his arm around her. "I really like you, you know."

Arianna nodded. "You too!"

Casey leaned in for a kiss, and Arianna kissed back, passionately, their lips intertwining, opening, Casey's tongue seeping in, and he began to reach in places he wanted, pulling off his shirt and then Arianna's-

"No," moaned Arianna, trying to pull out of the kiss, but Casey was strong, "no! Stop!" Casey wouldn't. The car doors were locked, his windows tinted, and as much as she tried to fight back, it didn't end until Casey was satisfied, all the clothes off, having gone all the way -

Arianna flashed back to reality. Those moments in Casey's dark car horrified her, and Boone looked so much like Casey, it wasn't funny. The hair was different, but the faces - they could be brothers. "I don't think Adele meant any harm," spoke up Boone. "Well, obviously she did to Ethan, but she was just trying to protect us."

"Thank you," murmured Adele, her eyes filled with tears.

"Let her go," said Arianna, and Phil let go at once; however, Carter wouldn't. "Let her go, Carter. Adele, you're to stay around here, alright? Stay in the medical tent with me tonight, and we're going to wait until Jack, Amelia and the others get back before we do anything."

Adele nodded, rubbing her wrists, and walking off toward the tent, in a conversation with Claire. Arianna sighed, walking off toward the edge of the beach with Alec still behind her. Coming up behind her was Locke, smiling.

"You did the right thing, Arianna," nodded Locke.

"I hope so" was all she could muster.

Jack Shephard, Amelia Cooper, Jamie Myles, Hannah Pace, Kate Austen and Sawyer Ford trudged through the woods, their faces and bodies covered in dirt, slime, grime and all the stuff in between. They'd made it out alive. The smoke had disappeared, evaporated, whatever you wanted to call it, but, in the chaos of escape, they'd lost the transceiver. They were lucky.

They could've lost so much more.

They broke off immediately upon reaching the beach, no one greeting them with a hello. Hannah went to join Phil and Charlie by the water. Sawyer and Kate both went off separately, on their own, while Jack, Amelia and Jamie trudged toward the medical tent.

Arianna tended to the Marshall, Claire sleeping in one corner, Adele in another. "Oh, my God," Arianna spun around, having heard them coming in. She rushed forward, tackling Jack in a hug. "Oh, my God, you're alright! Did you find the transceiver?"

"We'll talk about it later," murmured Jack, as Adele was stirring, and he really wanted the smoke monster to stay only between the six who had gone on the mission, and Arianna, although he knew that Hannah would probably tell Charlie, and Charlie would probably tell everyone. "We're still alive, Arianna, and that's all that matters."

**Author's Note: **Wow, guys, I feel completely blessed to be working with all of your characters! Some, especially Christopher and Oliver, will be more introduced in due time. Thank you again, Lindsay! (Any and all grammar mistakes can be blamed on Lindsay and I, who are, naturally, a bit out of sorts due to the fact that the Harry Potter premiere is literally in five days.) Next chapter should (hopefully) be up in a couple of days!


	6. Romance, Adventure and Fury

**Whatever it Takes**

**Chapter 3 **

Hannah Pace walked silently across the edge of the beach. It was nightfall, the group of six having returned from their adventure to find the transceiver without the one crucial item they'd wanted. In their blind chaotic mess of a run away from whatever the _hell _that smoke creature was, Hannah, Jack, Amelia, Jamie, Kate and Sawyer had managed to lose the thing that could possibly rescue them, and none were willing to go back out there.

Phil and Charlie lay on the beach, feet away from Hannah; already, they'd become inseparable, and that was something that made Hannah happy. Honestly, Charlie was someone she cared about more than anything, and seeing that, even out here, he could make a friend made her ecstatic. She'd already _seen _him in conversations with Claire. She'd seen the look on his face, and she knew immediately he was in love, but didn't want to say anything, knowing that Charlie would freak out.

Near Phil and Charlie were the rest of their friends; Carter, Kevin, Jordan and Alec, all crammed around a fire that was still burning - Hannah knew that this was a safety hazard, but, knowing how much time and effort it had taken Jordan to start it, didn't want to douse out the thing with a splash of water. She continued down the edge of the beach, her toes jiggling around in the sand. The weather was nice enough, but the smell of the dead bodies in the fuselage was still there, constantly haunting them.

Hannah _knew _how weak that Amelia, Jamie, Jack and the others perceived her to be. They'd treated her like, like she was _Shannon _on that mission, for God's sake! No, she wasn't the weak, Beverly Hills diva that Shannon Rutherford was. Hannah was strong, but her small size and relationship to laid-back Charlie tended to make people think that she was. Honestly, Hannah had wanted to prove herself on that mission, to show that she had it in her, but she knew that she'd only appeared weak to the physical specimens such as Jamie, who could vault over a twenty-foot wall with no problem.

It infuriated her; it was like high school all over again, a popular clique forming. Jack, Amelia, Jamie, Arianna, Lucie, Beth, Kiara, Walt, Michael, Kate and Hurley were all spread out around the perimeter of the medical tent, lying on blankets and other fabrics scavenged from the rubble of the plane wreck. Smaller knots of people were spread out, and Hannah carefully changed her direction, tip-toeing toward the tent. None of the various people were woken as she hopped over them, entering the medical area to make sure everyone was okay. The Marshall was gasping for breath, his cries having ceased for now, while Claire slept, quietly; Adele was gone, having left in the night.

This made Hannah more upset than she'd been her entire stay on the island. Arianna had given clear instructions to Adele to stay inside the tent, and these had been _enforced _by Jack and Amelia. Why wasn't she listening? Hannah's blood boiled, as she gripped the Glock off the floor of the tent, throwing it in her pocket as protection and heading through the back entrance of tent in to the jungle.

She knew it was a stupid idea, given the time and circumstances, but she knew that Adele wouldn't stray that far from the path. Just like Hannah, Adele knew how to survive, and plunging yourself in to the middle of a dark mystical jungle at nightfall wasn't the smartest thing to do. The trees rustled from her movement, the animals around her still chirping, and she gripped the Glock tightly in her right hand.

Someone emerged from the bushes, wielding a knife blade, and Hannah raised the gun to eye level; however, upon realizing who the person was, she dropped it. "What are you doing out here?"

"I could ask you the same question," Scarlett Lexington emerged from the bushes, tucking the knife blade in to her pocket. "Looking for Adele?"

Hannah nodded.

"It's not worth it," Scarlett shrugged, plopping herself on a rock that seemed to have magically appeared. "I've been looking all night. I went by to sneak some water out of the medical tent - oh, don't act like _you _haven't done it - and she was gone, so I grabbed this out of Jamie's pocket and started looking, but she's long gone."

"Do you think she was captured?" asked Hannah. This Adele was starting to infuriate her more and more.

"Nah, she's too smart to fall in to the same trap twice," laughed Scarlett. "She was probably just as smart enough to realize we were going to keep her locked up for awhile, so she ran. Don't worry; she'll turn up five years from now, with food traps full of pizza and a full-grown beard."

Hannah's and Scarlett's laughs meshed together, Hannah's loud and chirpy and Scarlett's seductive and velvety. "She doesn't seem like that bad of a person," shrugged Hannah. "From what she says about Ethan, he tried killing her, so no one can really blame her from slicing him in to bits, you know?"

Scarlett rolled her eyes. "Well, I can appreciate the kill, but the fact that she did it with five witnesses in front of her doesn't exactly make her _Einstein, _right? The least she could've done was waited until the two of them were alone and struck - just like me and you are right now."

Hannah's eyebrows rose, and she instinctively reached for the gun.

"Oh, relax," Scarlett waved her off with a hand. "You didn't think I was _serious, _did you? I'm only playing. I like you, Hannah - you're better than those princesses, like Cathy or Shannon, or the druggies, like Kevin. We'll be friends just fine."

"Oh, we _will _be?" Hannah raised her eyebrows once more. Sure, Scarlett seemed like a nice enough person, but her arrogance and sort of self-assertion that she had more street smarts than anyone else were knocking Hannah a little off-balance. "I wasn't under the impression that you mandate who are my friends out here, Scarlett."

"Oh, I'm not _mandating _anything," retorted Scarlett, her anger bubbling up just like it had toward Kevin. "But if you think that, then I guess I can leave. Good luck finding Adele."

Scarlett sashayed quietly, rolling her eyes toward Hannah and exiting from Hannah's line of view back in to the bushes. Hannah finally released her breath, releasing that she'd been holding it that entire time. Scarlett was…she was…it was an _injustice, _that was what it was! While the rest of the survivors were trying their best to survive, people like Scarlett and Adele and even Cam and Oliver were living off toward the outskirts of camp. It annoyed Hannah to no end, and she reminded herself to mention it to Jack later.

Now, all there was in the jungle was Hannah, her Glock, and silence. Gulping, she continued on, ignoring the signs of danger; Hannah knew she was tough enough to make it through, she didn't need anyone's reassurance, and this would prove herself.

This would show the others what Hannah Pace was made of.

…

Christopher Wilcox was stumped.

It _should've _been there. Kate, Sawyer, Hannah, Jack, Amelia and Jamie had been abundantly clear in the path that they had run upon losing the transceiver. Wherever it was, it _should've _been along the path that Christopher and company were following, but the little transceiver was nowhere to be found.

"You _had _to lose it?" grumbled Alec Morris, a knife gripped carefully in his fingers. Arianna had dispatched him to accompany Christopher and the others on this search and, in case of attack, to be prepared to fight to the death. His gun was hidden carefully in his pocket, obstructed from view, and he liked it that way. "You guys couldn't have just gripped on to it while you ran? Or at least gone _back _for it?"

Kate stammered for an answer, looking to Sawyer, but he only shrugged and made a cocky grin - _your call, sweetheart. _Amelia's, Jamie's, Jack's, Hannah's and Arianna's voice rang in their ears; they were _not _to, whatever the circumstances, tell the other survivors about the smoke monster. "I don't know," stuttered Kate lamely. Sawyer laughed, covering his mouth with his hand, and she angrily took off, gaining speed and leaving Sawyer in the back of line until she was near Christopher in the front. "Do you have any idea where it could be?"

"I have plenty of ideas, none of which seem to be about where the six of you twits dropped this ruddy transceiver," murmured Christopher angrily. "I'm not too sure as to why you selected me to go on this mission, either; I can't pull the bloody thing out of my pocket, you know, it's not _my _fault that you lost it!"

"It was Jack's idea," spoke Kate calmly. Sawyer was offering no help what-so-ever, and Alec was silent, now trailing behind Sawyer. "He thought that you might be able to calculate the trajectory of the transceiver and find it-"

"How am I supposed to do that?" Christopher rolled his eyes. "I've no information, nothing to use in the formulas, there's no _way _we're going to find the bloody thing-"

"Its right here," laughed Sawyer, in sarcastic delight, holding up the transceiver. "Thanks for the help, Professor; I'll be sure to tell Doc _all _about your amazing contributions."

Christopher muttered angrily, stowing his glasses in his pocket and marching back toward the beach; Alec followed, clinging behind Christopher as if his life depended on it, and Sawyer remained to stare at Kate for a second with a smug grin.

"You're an ass; you know that, right?"

…

"I don't know what to do, Jack," said Arianna hopelessly, her hands held up in distress. Behind her, she could hear Jordan comforting the moaning Marshall, who screamed about death so casually now that it was becoming normal for a survivor to hear a man threatening suicide.

Arianna was seated in the sand near the edge of the beach, Jack, Amelia, Jamie and Lucie by her side. Lucie carved absentmindedly in to the sand with the end of a twig; Jamie twirled his gun around and looked to Amelia sycophantically; Amelia studied Arianna as if she was a cancer patient, wanting to look like she was truthfully diagnosing Arianna's statement while really waiting for Jack to respond; and Jack stared hard at his best friend.

"He's not going to survive," spoke Jamie quietly. "Is it best if we end it?"

"End his _life_?" Lucie dropped the twig, wiping the sand off her hands and raising her eyebrows. "Geez, are you sure there's nothing we can do?"

"Virtually nothing," said Jack confidently. "I wish there was, but there isn't. We can either keep him around in the tent in agonizing pain, or-"

"I'll do it," said Jamie at once, rising to his feet as Amelia, Lucie, Jack and Arianna all looked at him in horror. "Someone get Claire out of there-"

"What do you _mean, _'you'll do it'?" Amelia was enraged. "No you _won't!_ We're going to take him far in to the woods, away from the children and out of sight-"

The Marshall's screams echoed through their conversation.

"No, why don't we just do it here-" said Lucie calmly, but now Jamie, Arianna and Amelia were all interjecting, as Jack stood there, hopelessly-

Without any warning, Jack marched out of the circle, gripping a gun off the suitcase outside of the tent, and, five seconds later, Jordan and Claire came flying out of the tent. The screams were heard, and the group all looked toward the tent in horror as the yells muffled, a gunshot ringing in the ears of all the survivors, as Jack emerged.

"His pain's over," said Jack softly.

Claire clutched her stomach, wobbling unsteadily and latching on to Jordan, who was staring at Jack with utmost disbelief. Amelia and Jamie exchanged glances, worried, while Arianna took a step forward to Jack, who faltered and sank to the ground.

"You're okay," whispered Arianna, wrapping her arm protectively around Jack, who seemed to be at a lost for words for what he had just done. All around the beach, men and women were circling around the area, though Amelia, Jamie and Lucie were trying their best to give Jack and Arianna some space. Jordan sat Claire down on a rock as the heat blared down on them; gathering around were Kiara, Michael and Walt; Beth, Boone and Shannon; Locke; Rose; and Sawyer, Kate, Christopher and Alec came up from behind, Alec clutching the transceiver in his hand.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Rose said tenderly, motherly, grabbing Jack with a surprisingly tough arm and, with the help of Arianna, walking him out of the circle. Jamie signaled to Alec, who handed off the transceiver to Kate and walked in to the tent; the Marshall's body was quickly lifted out of the tent and taken out of sight, but Kate could've _sworn _it was staring directly at her.

…

Beth Collins sat quietly by water's edge, allowing the waves to lap gently through her dirty toes and out back to the horizon. The calming effect of the water seemed to somewhat take the strenuous effort of living with a bunch of deserted men and women on an island at least partially out of her mind. Unlike some - like Shannon - Beth had manned up and begun working around camp, and she could tell she was gaining the respect of the survivors, especially those who had written her off as a country girl.

"Wow, I still can't _believe _that," came the seductive purr of Shannon Rutherford, who sank her acrylic nails in to the sand, plopping her over-tanned body directly next to Beth's. Now, Beth remembered why she hadn't liked Shannon much, but Shannon, recognizing Beth immediately and wanting to cling to someone from the real world, hadn't sunk her talons out of Beth's flesh since they first met each other. "The Doc doesn't seem like a killer, does he?"

"Yeah," Beth murmured, smiling slightly. Shannon didn't seem to get the fact that Beth wanted her to leave, and continued chatting on about Jack's endeavors.

"Did you hear what the Marshall was saying before he died?" asked Shannon, raising an eyebrow; Beth shook her head, and Shannon smiled, as if she was proud that _she _was the one and only gossip queen of the island. "Jordan told me he kept saying 'Where is she?'"

"_Where is she?_" asked Beth. Now, Shannon had caught her attention, and clearly, if Shannon knew, the entire group was going to know within a few hours. "Who could he possibly be talking about?" They paused. "I mean, I promise it's not me!"

Shannon's and Beth's laughs meshed together, Shannon's fake, and Beth's genuine. Uninterestedly, Shannon began to pick at a piece of dirt between her nails. "Personally, I think it's that psycho bitch Adele," shrugged Shannon. "Has anyone even seen her lately? She, like, _disappeared _after that whole murder - good riddance, anyways."

"I think Scarlett might've seen her," said Beth curiously. "That's a good bet, though, because she always seems like she's hiding something, you know?"

"I'm _praying _she doesn't turn up again," laughed Shannon, extending her body until she was lying directly in the sand, her knees pointed toward the sky as she fished a pair of sunglasses out of her pocket. "I'm gonna get a tan, alright?"

Beth nodded, and even though it had been _her _spot before Shannon's, she got up; it just seemed like Shannon Rutherford was the type of person that you didn't want to fight over a tanning spot about. Wiping the dirt off of her backside, she stumbled in to Boone, who was coming out from behind the fuselage with a makeshift shovel in his hand, dirt on his face, a frown plastered across his beautiful lips.

No, _not _Boone. He was Shannon's brother, for God's sake.

"Have you seen Shannon?" asked Boone, ripping a piece of fabric off his shirt sleeve and using it to wipe his sweat. "We're disposing of the dead bodies in the fuselage - it smells _awful _in there - and Sayid, Carter, Kevin and I could really use the help."

"She's over there," Beth smiled, embarrassed at Shannon's laziness, pointing to the spectacle on the beach. Angrily, Boone grumbled, tossing his shovel down and marching toward Shannon; laughing to herself, Beth continued on.

…

Day and night had passed as Hannah Pace trekked on through the jungle; the chirping of animals that had once scared her now reassured her that she was on the right path. It seemed evident that Adele had traveled this way, from the smell to the footprints in the sand, and Hannah only hoped that this was it, and she was almost close.

After stumbling upon Scarlett around a day ago, she hadn't seen any human life. That made her almost happier; human emotions would get in the way of her mission to find Adele, and that wasn't something she particularly wanted or needed right now.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, something clamped through her lead, sending blood spilling everywhere as she was spun upside down, dangling limply from a tree. Hannah screeched at the top of her lungs, "Help!" She began to wriggle slightly, trying to pull her left ankle out of whatever had trapped her, but it was no use.

A woman sprinted out of the bushes, wielding a gun with a look of feverish frenzy on her face; her hair was wild, a bee's nest, clearly not washed or cared for in years. Her eyes seemed to be almost glowing red, her teeth sharp and yellow, her clothing a mess as she sauntered toward Hannah like an animal. The woman grasped the gun tightly, pointing the edge of the barrel in to Hannah's forehead as she growled:

"Where is Alex?"

Hannah looked at the desperate woman's face; the words were whispered, as the woman got inches from Hannah's head. "What the _hell?_" screamed Hannah. "I have no idea! Let me out of here this _instant!"_

The woman began circling Hannah, murmuring different phrases in languages that Hannah didn't recognize. What was happening? Who _was _this woman? Hannah's ankle was badly injured, and every couple of seconds the trap was sinking further in to her ankle, losing blood, losing consciousness-

_"Robbie."_

_"Robbie! Give him back!" The night was cold, the bright lights of the carnival disappearing behind them. Draped in a coat and a pair of sturdy shoes, the gorgeous 18-year old sprinted after her boyfriend, her long hair flying in the brisk breeze._

_Robbie sprinted down the sidewalk, the bear he'd bought for Hannah at the fair clutched underneath his armpit. In her drunken state, Hannah slurred uncomfortably down the street, her feet barely able to move. _

_"You're not getting him back until you change his name." Robbie laughed, slowing to a walk so Hannah could catch up, freezing for a minute to regain the breath she had lost on their chase. _

_"No, he looks like an Archie!" Hannah giggled. Robbie rolled his eyes, spinning around and pulling Hannah romantically in to his arms._

_"An Archie is the _last_ thing he looks like!" He smiled and brushed a strand of hair from Hannah's face with his free arm, the other one still hanging on loosely to the teddy bear. _

_Hannah leaned forward slightly, brushing her lips with his, still smiling; her arms circled around his neck while his only free arm went to the small of her back, pulling Hannah even closer to Robbie's warm body. _

_Pulling back slightly, Hannah giggled. "I'm drunk."  
><em>

_Robbie laughed. "Yeah? Me too."_

_"This was the best night ever, thank you." Hannah's exuberant smile never left her face. Only Robbie could make her have that cheeky grin, something her parents had barely seen in years - he was romantic, and fun, and beautiful, and everything she needed in a person to make her feel _alive.

_"Listen," Robbie gave her the bear, sobering up a bit, clearly trying to look serious but a smile breaking through his lips. "You take care of Arthur."_

_"Archie!" Hannah corrected as he backed away, laughing._

_"Whatever his name is, look after him, 'cause he's had a late night." Robbie blew her a kiss while Hannah made Archie the bear wave slightly while Robbie smiled and walked away from her, leaving Hannah alone, with the most amazing feeling she'd ever had. _

…

Jack Shephard walked briskly through the beach as men and women dashed around him, doing as he was told. Truthfully, Jack liked the way things were going; everyone was working on things, and that was the way it should be. Kevin, Carter, Sayid and Boone had been disposing of the smelly dead bodies in the fuselage, something that the four men seemed to have bonded over. Hurley was in charge of searching for antibiotics, something that Phil, Charlie and Jordan had been sporadically helping with, although Jordan had taken on the job of being Dr. Taylor's assistant in the medical tent, which basically meant watching Claire. Michael was on kid duty, caring for both Kiara and Walt - no one had the heart to tell her that her father had been killed - while Alec and Jamie provided muscle and security, and Arianna, Lucie, Amelia and Jack all led various locations of the beach in various parts of their everyday lives.

It was something they'd come up with out of nowhere. Some, like Locke and Scarlett, spent their time away from camp, on their own, but that wasn't something that neither Jack nor Amelia could stop. Hannah hadn't been seen for a day or so, but Charlie just thought she'd gone for a little adventure, and wasn't too worried. Cam was nowhere to be found; neither was Adele, but no one really considered her one of the group anymore. Beth was an all-around hard worker around camp, floating to various places, as were Cathy, Kate, Sawyer and Thomas too. Christopher had befriended Jack as camp intelligence, while Oliver was always away from camp, hiding somewhere or another; the only person who was _blatantly _doing nothing was Shannon Rutherford, who relaxed.

Even as he walked, Jack could see Hurley jogging toward him from the other side of the beach. The bigger man had been working as hard as he could - frankly, Jack didn't expect much from him due to his size - and was already growing to be a good companion for Claire, much to Charlie's chagrin.

"Hey, Jack?" Hurley called, huffing and puffing, holding his hands to his knees as he keeled over, gasping for breath. "I can't find any antibiotics, man; I'm sorry."

"It's alright, Hurley," said Jack, awkwardly patting the large man on the back. "We'll find them eventually; don't worry."

Hurley nodded, mumbling to himself and walking back away from Jack. Chuckling to himself, Jack continued onward, past Kiara and Walt, past Locke, past Jamie and Amelia and past Cathy to where Sayid stood, tending to the fire. Sweat poured down his face quickly in to the sand, as he stood up straight, staring at Jack. Jack inclined his head, as did Sayid, as the two men stood admiring Sayid's work.

"I think I'm going to take a group in to the woods," said Sayid quietly. He was a man of few words, so Jack clung to every syllable as if they were gold. "I'll bring the transceiver with us, too, to higher grounds. Maybe it'll work up there."

"Yeah, good idea!" said Jack enthusiastically. "Make sure to go quickly, because it'll run out of batteries, and then we're screwed."

Sayid nodded. "I have ideas of who I want to bring." Without acknowledging Jack, he strode off to where Shannon was lying, across the beach. Jack couldn't make out much, but within ten seconds, Shannon was rising from the ground, cursing and flipping Sayid off, but following him back toward the fire. Whatever Sayid had said to her, Jack didn't want to know, because Shannon seemed to be in quite a volatile mood; before she could reach him, Jack sprinted off away toward the medical tent.

Arianna sat outside of it, fixing her bandana absentmindedly. Jack could see through the open door that Charlie, Claire, Jordan and Phil were playing a game of cards; Claire seemed to be laughing, something that made Jack happy. He smiled warmly at Arianna, taking the seat next to her with a loud plop.

"Have you seen Hannah?" asked Arianna suddenly, rubbing her elbow. "I'm worried about her, Jack; she's been gone all day."

"Should we send out a search party, or something?" asked Jack, and Arianna nodded quickly, gulping. Jack could tell that she was more nervous than usual, something that normally didn't describe Arianna. Jack jumped up quickly. "I'll get right on it."

…

Adele Slizewski walked quickly and angrily, her footsteps almost pounding out an angst-filled melody. She boomed along to a beat in her head, an old tune she'd heard long ago, but the gun she held was never dropped from her line of sight, never wavering. Ever since she'd declared herself sovereign, leaving the survivors who had so horribly accused her of being someone who would turn against them, Adele knew she'd have to be on her own.

A rustling noise behind her cause Adele to swing around, aiming the gun at a nearby bush, but nothing moved, and she continued her normal pace. The jungle was a scary place if you weren't trained to fight in it, but Adele absolutely was, and the darkness didn't scare her. It excited her, in a way, and thrilled her with an enormous rush of adrenaline she hadn't felt since her's and Ted's adventures.

She loved it.

She missed him; she really did. Remorse wasn't something that Adele usually felt, but maybe, just maybe, if they had driven home that night, or done something differently, they would've made it, and she would've still been with Ted.

_The air was brisk in Las Vegas that evening, as casino lights blared, cars flying past way faster than they should have. Adele felt happier than she had in awhile, gripping Ted's hand warmly. Still in her card dealer's outfit from work, her hair was pulled back in a wispy ponytail; she planned on prettying herself up when they got back home, provided Ted would treat her to dinner for the fifth night in a row._

_"Were the clients good?" asked Ted, smiling. Even just looking at Adele illuminated the tough features of his face._

_"Better," shrugged Adele. "They got rid of that one druggie who kept 'accidentally' hitting my chest when he reached to grab his cards, so that was good."_

_Ted chuckled, and said sarcastically, "You know, I really envy your profession, Adele."_

_"Oh, sorry," laughed Adele, "that not all of us can be investment bankers, you arrogant asshole." She punched him lightly on the shoulder._

_"Arrogant asshole?" said Ted smugly, still completely kidding. "Geez, Addie, you get more aggressive by the day, don't you?"_

_Adele laughed. "I love you, Ted."_

_Before he could respond, a car swung up to the side of the road, a large van, and a hefty man jumped out. Ted seemed to realize exactly what was happening and quickly let go of Adele's hand, sprinting down the road, but a second van pulled up, a second man piled out, and Ted was cornered._

_"What do you want?" said Ted quietly. He slowly backed toward Adele as the two men walked toward him casually, as if they had all the time in the world._

_"We're here to collect," said one of the men, a large African-American one with black sunglasses and a tattoo that said "I Love You Madison" on his bicep. "Keamy says you haven't paid - is that right, Manning?"_

_Ted acted quicker than Adele could've believed, grabbing her arm and hurtling her over bushes with himself. The two sprinted through a motel parking lot, behind the building, while Adele could see clearly over her shoulder that the men were drawing weapons. Ted sprinted through the parking lot, Adele in tow, their blood pumping, to the diner next door and behind, attempting to escape in to the woods. The men were shooting full-speed, bullets lodging in car doors, but Ted and Adele were stuck, no escape-_

_"NO!" The men were shooting directly at Adele, and Ted pushed her to the ground, the bullets just narrowly avoiding their heads. Adele grabbed the thing nearest to her, a large wooden board and sprinted forward, swiping at the first; he narrowly dodged it, while the second grabbed a bottle of something or other off the ground, dumping it toward Adele's face. The chemicals seared her left eye, cutting a deep wound, and she was partially blinded; in the confusion, Adele sunk to the ground._

_Ted screamed. The second man's bullets dug through Ted's skull and he fell to the ground like a marionette with their strings cut. In blind rage, Adele picked up the wooden board, hitting the first man directly in the head; he fell, and Adele gripped his gun tightly, shooting off a round in to the bodies of both. _

_The pain was unbearable, and she fell to the dead body of Ted, clutching him, sobbing hysterically as the chemicals went further in to the flesh of her eye-_

_She hadn't had a chance to notice the second man who entered the ally. He was clean-shaven, well built, and there was a mysterious aura to him that both attracted and scared Adele. With her one good eye, she looked up from Ted's body to the man._

_"Who the hell are you?" Adele screamed, aiming the thug's gun directly at his head._

_"You don't want to do that," said the man, raising his hands above his head. "I can help you, Adele. Drop the gun."_

_Adele?_

"Adele."

Instinctively she raised her gun toward the bush where the noise was coming from. That was a familiar voice. No, it _couldn't _be the man from the ally-

Adele ran toward him.

"Richard?"

…

Oliver Greene sat comfortably in the top-most tree of the jungle, his feet dangling precariously off the branch - _just _the way he liked it. With all the egos around camp, it was just his thing to hang out on the outskirts - like Scarlett and like Locke. Those were the three main ones who avoided the everyday events of camp, although Adele would be up there as well if she was even considered a survivor anymore.

The 14-year old was very tall, with jeans and a pair of worn-out Converses that were splattered in paint and dirt and grime. The only person even _near _his age was Cam, although he was a stoner and not that nice of a kid. Oliver would've much rather been able to be friends with Boone and Shannon and Claire and Sawyer and them, but Shannon was too beautiful, Claire too angelic, Boone to All-American boy and Sawyer too suave. No, Oliver was just, well, _Oliver, _in all his gawky, awkward glory.

Oliver jumped down from the tree, his feet hitting the ground hard. He'd only been a couple feet up, thank God, or he would've broken his feet, and out here, with no medical supplies, even the medical expertise of Dr. Taylor and Dr. Shephard wouldn't have been able to save him. Oliver began to stride confidently toward the beach; he was pretty sure he'd overheard Boone and Shannon discussing that there was a mission to go on with Sayid, and he was mostly curious.

On the beach, there was a small group gathered by water's edge, suiting up with backpacks scavenged from the fuselage. Sayid was there, clutching the transceiver in hand, with Alec Morris by his side; behind him was Kate Austen, always tough and always nervous, as well as Boone, Shannon, Sawyer and, surprisingly, Scarlett, who looked out of place but comfortable at the same time. Jack, Amelia, Jamie, Arianna and Lucie all stood around them, smiling.

"You guys will be alright, right?" asked Arianna. She was nervous, clearly, wiping sweat and grime from her bright red hair.

"We'll be fine, Dr. Taylor," smiled Kate, and the two women shared a look of understanding. "Don't worry about us, okay? We'll be back soon."

Arianna nodded, as did Jack and Amelia, and Sayid, Alec, Kate, Scarlett, Boone, Shannon and Sawyer head off in to the jungle; their bodies disappeared behind the foliage.

"Well, time to send off another group, correct?" laughed Jamie, breaking the tension with his hearty chuckle. "Let's go, guys."

Amelia looked at him in horror, her eyes bulging. "Where are _you _going?"

Jamie stared back in disbelief. "Carter, Kevin, Phil, Charlie and I are going to find Hannah! It's Dr. Taylor's suggestion, because we haven't seen her in a little while and everyone's on edge, Amelia."

"Why didn't anyone run this by me?" demanded Amelia, looking around the group. Arianna and Jack were there, as was Lucie, and Rose, and Locke and Michael, Walt and Kiara. "I thought I was _leading, _but no one tells me anything-"

"Wait a second." Locke spoke up, and everyone froze. "Who made _you _leader? I was under the impression that it was Jack."

Amelia's eyes fluttered around the group. Sure, no one had _elected _a leader, but she was under the impression that the survivors had been following her orders. "I-I…well, what I meant was - I didn't think I was _leader…"_

"It doesn't matter _who _is leader," said Rose, comforting Rose, coming to Amelia's defense, and she smiled to the elderly woman. "Amelia and Jack have _both _been leading the group; same with Lucie, and Dr. Taylor, and Jamie. Who _cares _whose leader?"

Jack nodded. "Rose is right. Everyone get back to work, okay? Hopefully they'll find Hannah by morning."

The group broke apart slowly, all in to various locations, leaving Amelia alone on the beach, staring out at the water. However many days they'd been on the island had already aged her, made her look older and less beautiful, and all she wanted was to get back home, to be with her family and out of this wretched place-

"Listen, Amelia," Amelia had hardly noticed Rose there, but the older woman was right by her side, wrapping a protective arm around Amelia's shoulder. "Don't be too caught up on politics, alright? It doesn't matter _who's _leading, as long as we're all surviving."

Amelia nodded. "Geez, Rose, I don't remember you being so wise!"

Rose laughed. "Trust me, sweetheart; neither do I!"

…

Arianna Taylor paced carefully outside the medical tent. Things were going surprisingly well for the group, but there was something making her uncomfortable, something she desperately wanted to address. The Korean couple sat off to the side of the beach; they'd spent so much time away from the group, no one even knew who they were, and Arianna never even had time to speak with them, to let them know that she spoke their language.

The woman was alone now, the man off in the jungle, and Arianna could tell she was skeptical, melancholy even. Walking slowly as to not scare the woman, Arianna sat by her side, smiling warmly.

"I'm Arianna Taylor," She spoke in perfect Korean, something she'd picked up on over the years. "What's your name?"

"Sun," whispered the woman, who was close to tears. "Sun-Hwa Kwon."

"And your husbands?"

"He is Jin," murmured Sun back, in Korean. "You're amazing at what you do, Dr. Taylor. I'm very thankful we have you out here on the island." Sun's mouth formed a smile.

Dr. Taylor smiled back. "Thank you, Sun."

And, for the first time, it seemed like Sun had a friend.

…

**A/N: **Guys, there's really no excuse for the lateness of this chapter - all I'm going to say is that I would _never_ give up on this story, and family issues, combined with work and vacation, caused the delay of this chapter. I want to thank all of you for being patient and pray that this will never happen again.

Unfortunately, I'm going on vacation this Saturday until the one after that, meaning I can't start writing the story until August 7th. I apologize, but it'll continue after that.

Also, SUBMISSIONS FOR OTHERS ARE OPEN! Please PM them or leave them in reviews all this week; I'll check the reviews when I get back on the 7th. A character I recently received, **Frankie Anderson - **submitted by **New-Classic22 - **can obviously not be used as a middle-section survivor, so New-Classic22, contact me!

In addition, reviews are always welcomed, and I really want constructive criticism - if you don't like the way I'm writing your character, _please _let me know. I'm trying to write all characters the way they were described in their bios, so let me know!

Finally, the Others submission form. I'm looking for characters that are _supremely _unique. Are they loyal to their superiors? Do they want to leave? Be creative!:

Name:

Nicknames:

Age:

Origin:

Appearance:

Personality:

Friends:

Enemies:

How they came to be with the Others:

Past:

Occupation:

Anything else?:

((Others _probably _won't turn up for awhile, but I want them ahead of time.

Thank you all for your dedication and this is the end of a horribly long author's note!))


	7. Deception, Injury and Turmoil

**Whatever it Takes**

**Chapter 4**

Alec Morris clutched his weapon tightly in his right hand, a knife blade in his left, as he sliced through the thick foliage of the jungle. Clearly the most muscular one in the group, he led the team of seven, no one slowing, no one wanting to be the weakest link.

Behind Alec was Sayid Jarrah, hiking with ease, almost looking _bored; _he knew that he should've been the one leading the group, but let Alec do it instead, knowing it'd hurt the man's pride to call him out. He held the transceiver in one hand, a hand-fashioned knife blade in the other. Next to him was Boone Carlyle, clearly trying to show off for the ladies, but he could barely keep up with Alec and Sayid. Near him was Scarlett Lexington, out of place in the array of physical specimens far more in shape than she was, but she knew that going on the mission would prove to the others that she was sick of being alone in the woods all day. Near her was Sawyer Ford, subtly checking out Scarlett's ass; Shannon Rutherford was behind him, her legs killing, and Kate Austen took up the rear, gripping yet another gun in her hand as she nervously fiddled with it.

"Could you _stop _staring, maybe? Jesus, make it a little less obvious, will you?" Scarlett suddenly spun around to Sawyer, screeching at him.

"Sorry, Baby Blues," winked Sawyer. "Remember me?"

Of _course _she remembered him, but now wasn't the time to bring it up, in front of the others. "Should I?" said Scarlett; she was a terrible liar, but she tried her best to play it as if she had no idea who Sawyer was.

"I remember _you, _Beauty Queen," laughed Sawyer. He shrugged, carrying on, but Scarlett hesitated, allowing Sawyer to step in front of her to avoid the constant staring. He only laughed, but continued on, not wanting to upset Scarlett.

_Five drinks down, and Scarlett was a wreck, her head spinning, lights flashing, nearly fainting but not wanting to stop. Her tongue was plunged down the throat of the gorgeous man in front of her - Vic? Sam? - as he moaned on and on, loving every second of it._

_"Hold on," said Scarlett suddenly, feeling some vomit coming on. She untangled herself from Mystery Man and sprinted through the bar to the bathroom, keeling over a toilet and puking. She'd always _been _a lightweight, she supposed, and five drinks was probably too many for her, but all Scarlett Lexington wanted to do right now was get wasted._

_She returned to the main room, but Mystery Man was gone, his seat replaced by a even hotter guy, his long golden hair running toward his shoulders, his eyes bright blue. _

_"Hey there, Baby Blues," winked the man, leaning closer to Scarlett as she sat down next to him. Regardless of where Mystery Man had gone, she just wanted to have _fun_, and he looked like he was up to it._

_"I-I'm Scarlett," She murmured, clearly hammered out of her mind._

_"Sawyer." _

…

_Scarlett woke. She was completely naked, lying in a room completely unfamiliar to her. Next to her was Sawyer in all of his glory, his body gorgeous in the sunlight seeping in through the windows. _

_"Shit," murmured Scarlett. She was in Australia covering a story, not to sleep with strangers that she'd met at bars the night before! "Hey, Sawyer?"_

_Sawyer shook gently. "What is it, Baby Blues?"_

_"I gotta go," Scarlett began hustling, throwing on her clothes in disarray and, grabbing a pen from Sawyer's side-table, she scribbled her number hastily on a sheet of paper. "Call me, okay?"_

_She was out in a flash. _

Yes, she remembered Sawyer, but that wasn't important right now. What _was _important was the fact that they needed to get to higher ground, to get a signal for this transceiver, so they could get _home._

…

The three women sat in a circle outside the medical tent, looking grim and tired and forlorn, covered in dirt. Arianna Taylor was the worst-looking, having been stressed out of her mind, but she was slowly beginning to stop relying on Jack, and work on her own, something she _should've _been able to do from the start. On her right was Lucie Hampton, rubbing her shoulder nonchalantly, and by Lucie's side was Rose Henderson, one of the oldest people on the island who never once gave up on her faith.

"So, we found Kiara's father the other day," began Lucie nervously, raising her hands to her head in shame. "Or, his corpse, I should say."

Rose was horrified, covering her mouth with her hand, while Arianna shook her head, disgusted at the circumstances that had gotten them here. "Have you told her?" asked Rose. "The poor girl deserves to know!"

"I don't know if I should," said Lucie shyly. "She's only a kid, and her spirit's probably broken enough being here-"

"So what, you're just going to let her think that her dad's alive for however long it takes for the rescuers to find us?" Arianna shook her head skeptically. "You should tell her, Lucie; you really should."

Lucie sighed. The discovery of Mr. Greenly had been weighing on her mind this entire time, but she hadn't wanted to say anything to Kiara, knowing how badly it hurt to lose someone that you loved. "I can't do it," Lucie broke down, wiping some tears from her face that had appeared as suddenly as the survivors had on the island. "I can't break that poor girl's heart! She'll be _devastated, _completely devastated, and I can't do it!"

"I will," Arianna patted Lucie on the back carefully. It wasn't something she wanted to do, but she couldn't see any other way around it. Lucie was too sensitive to say anything and, while it wasn't something Arianna wanted to do, she'd have to do it for Lucie's, and more importantly Kiara's, sakes. "I'll tell her later today, alright?"

"Don't worry sweetheart," said Rose, wrapping her arm around Lucie. "Just, think if you were in _her _situation - you'd want to know, wouldn't you?"

Lucie nodded. "Y-Yeah, I w-would."

"I'll talk to her."

"Dr. Taylor?" Lucie's heart dropped. No, this was _not _the time for this, because she knew that when she turned around her heart was going to break, but she couldn't resist, and she was face-to-face with young Kiara, grinning cheek-to-cheek. Rose squeezed Lucie's hand supportively, Arianna's arm wrapped around her, as Kiara plopped herself on the ground next to Lucie. "You're wanted in the medical tent; Jordan's stressing out."

Arianna nodded, flashing a supportive but subtle thumbs up to Lucie and Rose as she dashed away, though Lucie rolled her eyes. Clearly, Arianna was just trying to avoid breaking the news to Kiara. "Kiara…" Rose said slowly, making eye contact with the young girl as she breathed deep. "We have something to tell you."

Kiara looked from person to person, but both women had complete signs of sadness on their faces. "What's wrong?"

"Kiara…" Lucie said, tears beginning to well up in her eyes. "Kiara, your father passed away in the plane crash."

Kiara looked at the women, as the tears began slowly welling up in her face, slowly, until they burst, and she exploded forward with such force as though it seemed like she was a stick of dynamite. The girl screamed and began flying toward the woods, her fists balled up, wailing, as Lucie darted after her. "Kiara! Kiara!"

Lucie caught the girl and wrapped her arms around her protectively, as Kiara clawed at Lucie, biting, and Rose joined the skirmish, restraining Kiara; she collapsed in to Lucie's arms, and the two women sank to the ground, Lucie kissing Kiara's forehead. "I'm sorry, sweetheart," whispered Lucie. "Shh…it's going to be okay, sweetheart, I promise."

…

Dr. Taylor entered the medical tent as she fastened the bandana tightly around her head, tying back her red flowing locks. Rolling up her sleeves, she walked warmly toward the inside of the tent. The young Australian girl Claire was sitting up propped up against a pillow salvaged from the wreck, with Hurley and Jordan sitting on her sides, immersed in conversation with her as Jordan said something that made them laugh. Seeing Dr. Taylor, Claire smiled. "Hey, Doc," she said cheerfully. "How's it going?"

"Did you hear Kiara?" Dr. Taylor sighed, blowing off steam. She hadn't been ready to be thrust in to this position so early, but she had been. "I have no idea, to answer your question, Claire. How are you feeling today?"

"Fine," shrugged Claire, jokingly elbowing Jordan and Hurley. "Glad I have _these _two goons to keep me company."

"Doc?" said a voice, from behind. Slinking in to the room was young, mysterious Cam, wearing nothing but a pair of jeans, his tousled hair shining in the warm sunlight of the day. He hadn't spoken much and, frankly, no one had seen him much since the crash, particularly Amelia, who had vented her frustrations about him to Arianna the day previous. "Do you have any painkillers?"

"Painkillers?" laughed Claire, an almost snobby laugh. "You must think we're some luxury hotel, sweetheart."

"Next time I want some knocked-up Australian bimbo to give me her opinion, I'll ask for it," snapped Cameron, rolling his eyes.

"Don't _talk _to her like that!" said Hurley sharply, but Cam rolled his eyes, directing his attention toward the doctor.

"Oh, don't you _dare _start with me-" Claire was getting all riled up, but Arianna raised her hands to silence them.

"The _last _thing we need right now is fighting between all of us," said Arianna calmly, as the hostility between Jordan, Hurley, Claire and Cam made the room increasingly uncomfortable. "But no, Cameron; I'm sorry, but I don't have any painkillers."

"It's a shame," shrugged Cam. "Let me know when that slut's died, alright? I'd like to use that pillow to get a good night's rest." Slinking out of the room, Cameron seemed oblivious to the fact that Claire was jumping up from her seat to run at him, but Arianna restrained her.

"He's not worth it," said Jordan. "Some people deal with stress differently-"

"Don't justify that little asshole's actions, Jordan, I swear to God," snarled Claire, eyeing the doorway angrily as Arianna and Hurley forcibly placed her back in to her seat.

"Doc?" said a voice, as Oliver poked his head through the entrance to the tent. "Amelia wants you on the beach, if you're not busy. She says…she says it's time for a _council _meeting."

…

"Leave me alone, _Boone," _hissed Shannon Rutherford, her calves burning, as her stepbrother got in close to her side. She'd been in a foul mood since the hot sun had been beating down on them, and clearly didn't want to be seen being favored by one of the men after being glared daggers by Kate and Scarlett for the entire trek. "I don't _need _your sympathy, and I don't _need _your help."

"Hey, hey, _hey," _said Boone, raising his hands up as if someone was aiming a gun at him, his face innocent. "I'm just coming to say hi. How are you holding up?"

"I'm _fine, _thank you very much," snarled Shannon. "Want to leave me alone? I've told you, I don't really want that much to do with you right now, Boone; I'd much rather focus on making sure my spine doesn't snap in this jungle."

Sawyer cackled at this comment, passing Shannon and Boone, who was a good couple of feet behind the rest of the trekkers searching for the transceiver. "You gonna let her talk to you like that, baby boy?"

"I can _handle _it," snarled Boone, but Sawyer was already cackling and passing them. Shannon and Boone continued bickering until they walked in to Sayid in front of them, completely oblivious to the fact that the group had stopped.

"I think it's time to break up," said Alec, checking his wrist as if he had a watch on, though clearly he didn't. Scarlett looked pissed, as always, while Sawyer suavely stared at her ass; from his side, Kate clucked disapprovingly. Sayid looked as though he was above all of them, while Shannon and Boone tried their best to distance themselves from one another, as always. They'd paused on a small bit of land in the middle of the jungle, and clearly none of them were comfortable with their surroundings, Sayid often twitching to make sure no one was behind him. "It's almost time to go back, and we haven't done anything, so it's probably best if we break in to two groups."

"I absolutely disagree," murmured Scarlett, her arms crossed. "What are we accomplishing if we break in to two groups? It's still going to be a time crunch, and there's just more of a chance for some of us to die."

"No, he's right," said Sayid confidently. The rest of the group seemed to respect him, and all turned to his side. "Shannon, Sawyer – you're with me, no exceptions. I don't trust you, Sawyer, and I've been taught to keep my enemies close."

Sawyer laughed an evasive laugh. "Whatever, terrorist."

"Alec, Kate, Scarlett, Boone, you're that way," said Sayid, pointing behind them. "We rendezvous back at camp before it gets dark, alright? Stay together, don't get lost, and be smart."

"This _really _isn't a good idea," said Kate hesitantly, but no one was listening. Sayid pulled his knife from his pocket, and Shannon and Sawyer smiled at the rest of the group, Sawyer winking at Scarlett; they broke off in to two factions, Alec leading one, Sayid the other, as the silence of the jungle enveloped them.

…

Jamie Myles slashed his machete through the jungle, knocking over a majority of plants in his way. He truly hadn't expected such a group to go searching for Hannah, but that they had. He, Phil, Charlie, Carter and Kevin had been givens, but Cathy and Beth had insisted on coming along as well. Jamie wasn't much of a talker and liked more to think about things, but he was shocked that Hannah had been stupid enough to go out on her own. With the death of Ethan and the disappearance of Adele, he couldn't believe that Hannah would just venture in to the woods.

"I just feel like I can't _do _anything in the jungle, you know?" said Cathy, jumping up and down to emphasize her frustrations. "Like, it's the _Amelia _show, or the _Dr. Taylor _show, or the _Jack _show all the time – they just expect the rest of us to sit around on our asses and do nothing, don't they?"

Carter's eyebrows rose, knowing that Jamie had some feelings for Amelia – _everyone _on the beach could tell that much – but Jamie didn't seem to have heard, or was tactful enough to pretend that. "They're good people," he shrugged. "I just think they're the type that believes they have power over the entire Island when in reality, they don't."

"I just want to find my sister," murmured Charlie, his eyes drifting throughout the jungle, his hands trembling. "I don't _care _about what Jack and Amelia think: it's insignificant right now. We just need to find Hannah, that's all that matters."

Jamie nodded. "I agree. Let's just focus on finding Hannah right now, and then when we get back to camp I'll address your issues with Amelia, all right?"

The group fell back in to silence, but Beth began inching toward Charlie. She was a compassionate person, and she'd found Charlie to be that as well. Without saying any words, Beth intertwined her hand around Charlie's, and smiled at him. It wasn't a movement that said she was attracted to him; it was just showing him that he had a friend, and that there was someone who cared for Hannah's safety as much as he did.

"Thank you," murmured Charlie, tears welling up in his eyes. Beth only nodded, and together the two friends continued after Jamie, holding hands.

A loud crash in the jungle made them come up short – it was like a tree collapsing, a loud explosion. Jamie immediately pulled his gun off of its holster, aiming it forward, as the group compacted together; Beth, Kevin, Phil, Charlie, Carter and Beth all surrounded behind Jamie, with Phil drawing a knife from his pocket. Jamie's gun was now fully raised, his arms extended as they stared at the jungle in front of them.

Rustling happened, and then a scream; Beth was flying through the air, flipped completely upside down, until her ankle was dangling from a tree branch, her screams piercing through the ears of those around her. Jamie spun around to get the intruder, but a gun pressed to his forehead made him come up short.

"Drop the gun," said a gruff voice, in a Russian accent. Jamie complied immediately, dropping the gun to the ground and raising his arms. "Don't try anything funny, or I kill the man."

Cathy, Kevin, Phil, Charlie and Cathy all stared at the man, completely unaware of what to do. Beth was struggling to free herself from the trap, and when Cathy made a motion to free her, the man clenched his fingers tighter around the gun.

"You can come out now," said the man, cackling, and all around him, men and women began coming from the trees, with bows and arrows, guns and even a couple of hand-made weapons, with sharp blades on the ends. They wore casual clothing, although clearly were experts in maneuvering through the jungle.

"That'll be enough, Mikhail," said a calm voice, and a man emerged from the back of the ranks, holding no weapons in his hands, as his people began grasping the Oceanic survivors; two of them unfastened Beth, until all of the survivors had guns pressed to their heads. The man looked like a god, with cropped black hair, pale skin and a bright smile on his face that completely disagreed with his surroundings. "Don't worry; we're not going to hurt you."

Even with a gun pressed to his forehead, Jamie was courageous enough to shout, "What the hell is this? What do you want from us?"

The man, Mikhail, pressed the gun further in to Jamie's forehead, but the man raised his hands, as if to calm down Mikhail. "Easy," he murmured. "My name is Richard. I'll explain everything when we get back to camp."

"What the – _Adele?" _screeched Kevin, in absolute disbelief, his eyes bulging out of his head. Adele, the renegade survivor, stood behind Richard, her petite figure nearly concealed, but Kevin had seen her. She said nothing, as Richard motioned for his crew to start walking, and Carter, Cathy, Phil, Beth, Charlie and Jamie were schlepped away.

…

Arianna walked slowly toward the beach, her hands in her pocket, whistling to herself; what the hell had she gotten in to? It seemed like years ago that this plane had crashed, but she'd been plunged in to a completely different world. However, she finally spotted the group she'd been looking for: standing near a piece of the plane, balancing on a machete stabbed in the ground with a bandana around her head, was Amelia, a woman who absolutely commanded power.

"Hi, Dr. Taylor," smiled Amelia warmly. The Island had already changed her, they could all tell, and they'd only been there for days. Jack sat by Amelia's side, with Lucie subconsciously rubbing her elbows, clearly unaware of why she was here; Christopher, too, sat by Amelia's side, and rounding off the group was Thomas, who seemed the most out of place within the group. "I thought I should call this meeting in order to start up a council, to dictate things happening on the island."

Amelia took a deep breath. "Hannah's gone missing, Adele went rogue; we've got Sayid's faction off searching for the transceiver, we've got Jamie's faction off searching for Hannah… I just think we need to get organized, and we need a government to start running things, because frankly, we're going to die if we don't get our act together."

"I figured that we should get a council of representatives together in order to dictate the decisions of the general public, and you all seemed like the best ones for the job; Jamie, Hannah and Alec should all be included too, when they return. Does everyone sound onboard with this?" Amelia let out a deep breath after finishing her clearly rehearsed speech.

"A…_council?_" Thomas was in disbelief. "Shouldn't we be chosen by the general public, not you?"

"I thought that someone needed to make the decision," said Amelia, trying her best to make things sound as political as possible. "We've got Jordan and Hurley caring for Claire full-time, Rose has her hands full watching Kiara, Cam and Oliver are running free in the jungle, Michael has Walt, no one even _sees _Locke often and I've no idea what's going on in the heads of the Korean couple, so this is the best shot we've got."

"I just feel like we're seizing power of the group even though we haven't been designated it," said Thomas uneasily, and Lucie nodded by his side. "Like, why do we get the right to dictate what the group does?"

"Look, I'm not a _dictator_, Thomas," said Amelia, clearly annoyed that no one was acknowledging her idea. "Clearly, Jamie and Arianna and Jack and I have taken on leadership roles within the group, as have you and Lucie, and that's why I gathered us all here – we have to decide things for the benefit of the group!"

"Everyone calm down," said Jack, in his soothing voice. "Amelia's clearly trying to do something for the benefit of the group, not herself, and I think her idea really has some promise. We _do _need a community to figure out what's going to happen, and I agree that we're the best representatives for it."

"Then it's settled," said Amelia, crossing her arms and pulling the machete from the ground. "Meeting adjourned; I'll gather all of you when we have something to discuss."

She stormed away, with Lucie and Thomas both breaking off in to their own little locations. Laughing uneasily, Arianna looked to Jack. "What the hell are we getting ourselves in to?" laughed Arianna. "That woman's insane."

Jack laughed back. "Honestly? What are we even _doing?!" _They both began cracking up, collapsing on to the sand by the water. "How's Claire been?"

Arianna shrugged. "I can't really tell. I think she'll be giving birth relatively soon, but it's hard to tell and her memory's kind of hazy after the crash, so it's hard to figure out. She seems to have taken a liking to Jordan, though – he's a good enough kid."

"What about Cam? I don't like him," said Jack blandly, picking some sand off of his feet as he stared at Arianna.

"He came asking for painkillers today," shrugged Arianna. "I haven't seen the kid since. He's not the friendliest, though – Claire doesn't like him much."

"Yeah, he's one of those 'I hate the world' types," laughed Jack. "I was that same way when I was a kid, trust me."

"Oh God," giggled Arianna. "I can just _see _it!"

Jack rolled his eyes while she began laughing. "Don't you have somewhere to be, _Doctor?"_

"You're right," laughed Arianna, composing herself and rising up from the sand. "I got to go check on Claire. Have fun with Amelia!" She could basically _picture _Jack's eye roll and it made her laugh as she walked away.

…

_Years had gone by. Scarlett looked more beat-up, more worn-out. She sat on the front porch of her house, smoking a cigarette as she rifled through the newspaper. She'd been working hard and today was her only day off to stay home with her son, Danny. Danny giggled as he played on the front lawn, playing catch with one of the neighborhood kids. His little blonde locks cascaded from his head and he wore a pair of overalls that Scarlett had made herself a couple of nights before. She was exhausted, clutching a cup of coffee in her hands as she read the spread of that morning's paper._

"_I'm a huge fan of this editorial, Sally, I think it's some of my best work," chatted Scarlett amicably on the phone to one of her co-workers. "It's hard-hitting, it's quick and it gets the job done. What do you think?"_

"_I think you have a lot to be proud of, Scarlett," said Sally back. Scarlett laughed, and thanked her, watching as her son and the boy next door tossed a baseball back and forth. They lived in a pretty rough neighborhood; just Scarlett and her son. She'd enrolled him in daycare down the street, but she'd taken a day away from the office just to be with him today. Of course, that day could not be granted because of how incredibly busy she was._

"_I'm exhausted Sally," said Scarlett, "absolutely exhausted. I worked a shift at the bar last night, made about twenty bucks in tips and now I can barely move."_

"_Hey, take the day with your son!" shouted Sally, smiling. "Enjoy yourself. You deserve it, I promise. I'll see you tomorrow." Scarlett thanked her, and clicked the phone off._

"_Hey, Mom?" chirped Danny from the front lawn. "The ball rolled into the street – can I grab it?"_

_Scarlett removed her sunglasses and stepped off the porch to make sure the coast was clear. They didn't live in one of the best neighborhoods and she was unsure of if this was the right move or not. However, the street was completely clear, no cars in sight._

"_Yeah, you're all set honey."_

_Danny gave his mom thumbs up as the little six-year old thundered into the road, reaching down to pick up his baseball. Out of nowhere came the roaring sound of a car, flying down the road. Scarlett jumped from the porch and sprinted onto the street as a red convertible whizzed down the road. Danny went flying across the street. _

_Scarlett fell to her knees._

And she had never gotten back up.

Alec was leading the charge through the woods, the buff military man continuing the charge through the foliage. No one slowed down the pace, although Scarlett was clearly taking up the rear. Boone and Kate chatted with one another although there was tenseness in the group; they all wanted to return back to camp, and this mission was making that goal completely impossible.

"I think it's time to give up," murmured Alec, wiping the sweat from his brow. "It's hopeless. I think that Sayid and the others must've headed back to camp by now."

Boone nodded. "I completely agree; I think we're just gonna kill ourselves out here. Let's head back, yeah?"

Alec nodded, and he and Kate led the march in the opposite direction, while Boone floated back to Scarlett. "Hey, are you okay?"

Scarlett stared at him, blankly, almost amused. "Me?"

"Yeah, you seem a little weird, is everything alright?" said Boone, concerned.

Scarlett was trying to get a read on the kid. From her short stay on the island, she'd noticed that Boone seemed to be one of the genuinely kindest people she'd ever met. Sure, he let Shannon walk all over him, but he treated everyone with respect. He was pretty clueless when it came to some things, but he was incredibly attractive, and that didn't hurt in an environment like this.

Screw it; Scarlett decided that Boone was going to be her friend. "Yeah, I'm good," said Scarlett, smiling at him. "How are you?"

…

Jamie, Phil, Carter, Beth, Cathy, Kevin and Charlie were marched through the woods silently as the men and women gruffly tugged at their arms. The man at the head of the group, Richard, was the only one in the entire vicinity speaking as he chatted with Adele, almost as if they were seated at a café having lunch with one another. Blood was seeping down Beth's head; she'd fallen earlier, but the men and women transporting the group didn't seem to care about her condition in the slightest.

Charlie was extremely angry and upset; his eyes were puffy red from the amount of crying he'd been doing. The Russian man had been placed with Charlie, and every once in a while he muffled the rocker's sobs with a jab in the arm. Meanwhile, by his side, Cathy was conspiring with a way to get the group out of this mess. She knew that they had to get back to camp and, whoever these people were, they were bad news.

Suddenly, a woman toward the front of the group stopped. "Richard. Do you hear that?"

There was a loud rushing noise coming from the woods behind them. Nobody moved, and the only noise that could be heard was Charlie's sobs, although the Russian man, Mikhail, put a hand to Charlie's face.

Then came the whispers, spiraling out of the woods like fire. Adele looked nervously at Richard, who seemed to be pondering the situation. He looked up at the sky, and for a second, there was complete silence.

Out of nowhere, a large smoke emerged, rushing at the crowd and knocking them to the ground. There was a bang, and a jab and the noise of a screaming woman. Cathy had wrestled herself from her captor and with a swift kick to the face, the man holding her fell to the ground in agony, clutching his nose. As she began to run, she too fell to the ground and was pinned beneath the weight of a man – he was dead on top of her, and she shoved his corpse away from her.

"RUN!" shouted Cathy, as she jumped onto her feet and began sprinting toward the woods. There was blood gushing from her leg, there was gunfire coming from behind her and she knew not what was going on. In the corner of her eye she could see Carter, sprinting after her, and then behind him were Phil and Charlie helping one another to their feet. She saw a glimpse of Jamie, but Kevin and Beth were nowhere to be found.

Cathy kept running. She wasn't going to die today. She had been through too much, there had been too many things in her life for her just give up. From behind here there was a flash and a bang, and she could hear Mikhail screaming, "ENOUGH!" but she continued to run. Jamie caught up to her and ran with her side-by-side as they sprinted through the forest, and he grasped her hand in his. They were making an escape from whatever was behind them, the smoke seeming to almost have evaporated.

"Where's Kevin, where's Beth," said Cathy exasperatedly, as they continued to run. She was almost out of breath. She'd caught a glimpse of Phil and Charlie beforehand but they were nowhere to be found, Carter sprinting behind Cathy and Jamie.

"I don't know," said Jamie, "keep running. We'll find them later."

"What _was _that?" shouted Cathy.

"Whatever it was, it was out for blood," choked back Jamie.

…

"_Where. Is. Alex?"_

"I DON'T KNOW."

Electric shocks. Screaming. Crying. More shocks. More screaming. More crying.

This was Hannah's life now.

But she was not going to be broken.

"WHERE IS ALEX?"

"_I DON'T KNOW!" _

The woman halted. She had a crazed look in her eye. Her hair was everywhere, her clothing completely torn, as she paced around the dark chamber with a gun in her hand. She had been torturing Hannah for hours.

Hannah hung upside down from the ceiling, by her ankle. She'd been in this position for several hours, a gash through her head, having not eaten in days. Her clothes were torn, there was a massive cut in her leg and she felt nauseous and like she was about to pass out. She had never been in so much pain. "Ma'am, I don't know who Alex is, and I don't know why you're interrogating me."

The woman paused, standing still. Her underground bunker was cluttered, various objects lying around, and it was concealed from view, completely hidden. Hannah knew that she only had one shot to get out of here, or she was going to die. There was no alternative.

"My name is Hannah Pace. I just crashed here, on this island. I was on Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles, California. I am not here to hurt you. I don't know who Alex is."

The woman stared at her, long and hard. She brushed her bangs out of her face to reveal piercing eyes. They stared straight at Hannah, while Hannah's eyes pleaded with the woman. This woman had clearly been here for a long time. She looked crazed, dirty, disturbed. Hannah wanted to help her, but she didn't know the reason that she had been captured, and she hoped that the woman would understand.

The woman walked toward her suddenly, and Hannah closed her eyes, bracing herself for some sort of pain. Suddenly, there was a thud as she landed on the ground, the ties around her ankles having been cut. She rubbed her head and sat up, only to reveal the woman with a gun pointed at her face. "Stand up."

Hannah obeyed, her hands raised, with the gun aimed directly at her forehead. She knew that one false move would result in her death. The woman guided her to a chair and sat Hannah down, tying her arms and legs to the chair. Hannah stared blankly at the woman, attempting to understand her motives. She reeked and dirt seemed to be embedded in her skin as she breathed heavily.

The woman walked out of the room, and Hannah sat in the silence. "Hello? Are you there?" The woman returned within a few minutes, with a bottle of water. She placed it in Hannah's hand, and said nothing as she walked away.

…

Thomas walked slowly through the forest, his tousled blonde hair ruffled and dirty. He'd spent the day investigating, not really sure what to do with himself, as things around camp were basically taking care of themselves. Under Amelia's dictatorship the people around the beach were starting to work hard, and everyone seemed to have a job as well as something issued.

As Thomas walked across the beach, he noticed the majority of survivors scattered in groups around the beach. With both squads gone looking for Hannah and for the transceiver it seemed as though almost no one remained. As Thomas neared the tent, he braced himself to see what was inside. Upon entering, he saw an extremely cheery Claire playing cards in the corner with Hurley, while Dr. Taylor tended to Christopher, lying in bed, Jordan eagerly by her side.

"Is everything alright?" asked Thomas, nearing the group.

Dr. Taylor peered up from Christopher, her hands patching up some gauze around his knee. Thomas could see in her eyes that she hadn't slept in days. "Yeah, we're okay. Christopher just tripped and sliced his knee but we're bandaging him up now."

"Don't know how I did it," Christopher shrugged, semi-smiling, "I swear, I'm the clumsiest man on the planet."

"You're all set," said Dr. Taylor, smiling, as she patted him on the leg and adjusted him to a sitting position. "Try and be more careful, okay?"

"Thanks Doc, I'm off," smiled Christopher back, walking out of the tent. Thomas settled down on the ground next to Dr. Taylor, and just as he was about to open his mouth, the tent opened and Oliver poked his head through.

"Guys, it's Cam," said Oliver, clearly panicked. His face was completely pale white and he looked like he had been crying. "He's passed out on the ground. I don't know what to do; he's not moving."

…

**A/N: **Sooo…it's been about a year…anyone there? Well, I'm putting this up in case anyone wants to read the next chapter. I have no real excuse for this late of an update other than the fact that my life has been extremely and incredibly busy. Next update to be up hopefully within the next week or two!

Namaste.


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